Tuesday, 3 February 2026, 10:30 AM
Location: St Luke’s Hall, St Luke’s Place, Cheltenham, GL53 7HP
Doors open at 10am for refreshments and browsing our Donated book shop and Library.
A History of Polar Exploration: Cheltonians North and South, with Anne Strathie
A History of Polar Exploration in 50 Objects: From Cook’s Circumnavigations to the Aviation Age is the latest of CLHS member Anne Strathie’s polar-related books. In it, objects help place well-known expeditions, including Discovery and Terra Nova, in a wider context and reveal interconnections between them. In her talk Anne will feature objects associated with Wilson and other explorers with lesser-known Gloucestershire and Cheltenham connections. She will also provide a surprising post-script to the story of one object – a now largely-forgotten Arctic episode in the 1890s which involved Wilson and his father, Ladies College and Cheltenham College pupils, Montpellier’s St Andrew’s church, the Baden-Powell family, acclaimed Arctic explorer and statesman Fridtjof Nansen and Wilson’s first ship Discovery. Be prepared to be surprised – and convinced that ‘real’ research still plays its role in an AI age!
Anne Strathie has previously written three biographies of members of Captain Scott’s ‘Terra Nova’ Antarctic expedition. Research for her books has taken her all over Britain and to Antarctica, the Arctic, New Zealand, Australia, America, Japan and Norway, including Spitsbergen. Anne, who was brought up in Scotland, now lives in Cheltenham, home town of polar explorer Edward Wilson. Anne regularly gives talks and participates in events in Britain and overseas, including for the Royal Geographical Society in London and around England.