AS a boy, I used to read the Arthur Mee encyclopaedias. It was in one of the volumes that I first read the story of Scott of the Antarctic.

The story tells of how Captain Robert Scott achieves his goal of reaching the South Pole only to find a Norwegian flag stuck in the snow. Raoul Amundsen had beaten him to it. Scott achieved a sort of immortality when he and his party perished on the return journey, but he must have died a disappointed man.

I was reminded of Scott when watching BBC2’s Timewatch programme about (later Sir) Ernest Shackleton. In the programme, the descendant of Shackleton and his team emulate his South Pole expedition of 1909. Shackleton never reached the pole, falling 90 miles short of the objective.

Nevertheless, Shackleton should not be considered a failure because of this. The fact that he progressed so far without the aid of modern technology and in inadequate clothing was a singular success.

Both Scott and Shackleton were heroes of the Edwardian age. They lived through the last gentle, innocent decade before the outbreak of the First World War, a brutal war which would rob Britain of its young men, and the spirit shown by Scott and Shackleton in the Antarctic.

Derek Parker, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.