Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans

Who was Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans?

Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, KCB, DSO SGM, known as "Teddy" Evans, was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer. He was seconded by the Navy to the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901-04, when he was on the crew of the relief ship, and afterwards began planning his own Antarctic expedition. However, he suspended this plan when offered the post of second-in-command on Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1910–1913, as captain of the expedition ship Terra Nova. He accompanied Scott to within 150 miles of the Pole, but later became seriously ill with scurvy and only narrowly survived the return journey.

After the expedition he toured the country giving lectures, and was promoted to Commander on his return to naval duties in the summer of 1914. He spent the First World War as a destroyer captain, becoming famous as "Evans of the Broke" after the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917. He commanded a cruiser at Hong Kong in 1921-22, where he was awarded a medal for his role in rescuing passengers from the wrecked Hong Moh, and then spent several years commanding the home fisheries protection squadron before being given command of the modern battlecruiser Repulse. He later commanded the Australian Squadron and the Africa Station before becoming Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, one of the Navy's major home commands; during this time, unusually for a serving officer, he was also Rector of the University of Aberdeen.