Marriage by post
Oriana and Edward Wilson sit at the three-legged table writing letters. They are staying at Edward’s family home, Westal in Cheltenham. Was it at this low table, with that ink pen, that Oriana wrote her most significant letter? For Edward (Ted) had asked his fiancée for her written consent when, in 1901, he was invited to apply for a position on Captain Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic.
When Oriana (Ory) first met Ted in 1896, he was a medical student at Cambridge. During the holidays he worked at the Caius College Mission in the slums of Battersea. The Mission was run by Ory’s uncle and Ted met Ory while she was on a brief visit. Shortly after, he wrote to his mother and proposed changing his thesis to a study of ‘The signs and symptoms of acute love… they are very interesting when one comes to think about it’.
The next time they met, Ory had taken a job as matron at a prep school in Cheltenham, just five minutes’ walk from Ted’s family home. Ory’s first visit to Westal was not auspicious. Ted had been sent home from his work at St George’s Hospital in London, having contracted tuberculosis, then a life-threatening disease. Ted’s faith in God meant that even with death in measurable distance, he felt remarkably calm, but he could not offer Oriana a future.
She was unusually tall and ‘scraggy thin’ with large, iceberg-blue eyes. Despite her ethereal appearance she was extremely practical and dismissed the risk of contagion. Ted nicknamed her the ‘Useful Help’, or ‘UH’ and it stuck. But in spite of her help, Ted deteriorated and was sent to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland.
Letters from Ory were a lifeline. After receiving one he wrote: ‘… so my left lung may go and bury itself’. On his return to Cheltenham, he introduced Ory to his hobby, ornithology, or as he described it, ‘birding’.
Oriana and Ted writing letters in the garden. Right: Captain Scott on a visit to Westal
Watching kestrels spiralling, they ‘made love’ as far as they were able. Ted was still coughing badly and his sister Polly was a contentious chaperone.
From the moment Ory accepted Ted’s proposal of marriage in 1899, he began to get stronger. He completed his medical studies while focusing on his hobby: painting birds. He and Ory wrote nearly every day. In the margins of his letters he drew swallows nesting, swooping in and out of the words.
Then, in ‘a regular bolt from the blue’, a fellow ornithologist proposed Ted for a post on Captain Scott’s expedition. Scott offered him a place, despite his scarred lungs. Ted embraced this unlikely turn of events as an act of God. Ory had become engaged to an invalid but she married an explorer. Three weeks after their wedding in 1901, he sailed away with Scott on the Discovery. His family did not expect that they would ever see him again.
Alone now, at her writing desk in the Westal garden, Ory sent letters to every port en route to Antarctica. Ted sent her his love and bird pictures by return. In November, he left civilisation and sailed south. Letters would be delivered by relief ship once a year when the sea ice thawed.
Two years later, Ory embarked on a gruelling voyage to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, to await his return. But Ted did not return. He had decided to stay south an extra year.
The letters that he sent back with the relief ship were full of love. Ory mastered her disappointment and tried to embrace ‘the glamour of being a Discovery wife’. She was resourceful, travelling extensively in New Zealand and working in North Island. When Ted did return in 1904, he recalled that their reunion ‘beat a wedding hollow’.
The second time Scott asked Ory’s husband to accompany him was six years later. Ted warned Ory that he could not bear to think that she ‘would fail’. She did not. She was so precious to him that he wrote to a friend confiding that ‘I often wonder why she has not been taken from me as good things so often are when they become the breath of one’s very existence’.
Ory and Ted on their wedding day. Right: with friends on a day out to Cranham Woods
Just before he left with Scott on the Terra Nova, Ted wavered. He looked to Ory, if not for consent, for reassurance. She gave it. On 28 November 1910, they said goodbye.
Two years later, in 1912, Ory sailed out to New Zealand. Once again, she received Ted’s letters, but he’d stayed south with Scott for an attempt on the South Pole. Shortly afterwards, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen returned from the Antarctic having reached the South Pole first.
Ory longed for Ted’s return the following spring. But a year later, in February 1913, she heard a newspaper hawker at Christchurch station calling out the headlines, ‘Antarctic Disaster’. Ted was dead. Soon after, she received his effects together with a letter written 11 months before:
‘To my Beloved Wife,
‘Life has been a struggle for some weeks now on this return journey from the Pole… Today may be the last effort… I shall simply fall and go to sleep in the snow, and I have your little books with me in my breast pocket… God be with you – my love is as living for you as ever…’
It was not the last letter she received from him. Months later, Mrs Oates, also bereaved, found another tucked inside Titus’s diary. After a decade of marriage, half of which Ted had been away, Ory still sometimes spoke of him in the present tense.
Ory’s Christian faith carried her through until, in 1916, her favourite brother Noel was killed, with 19,000 others, on the first day of the Somme. She lost her faith but she retained a belief in what she described as ‘an immanent spirit of goodness’, despite everything.
Oriana Wilson died two weeks before the end of the Second World War.
Katherine MacInnes is writing Oriana Wilson’s biography and would be grateful for any original documents relating to her.
When Oriana (Ory) first met Ted in 1896, he was a medical student at Cambridge. During the holidays he worked at the Caius College Mission in the slums of Battersea. The Mission was run by Ory’s uncle and Ted met Ory while she was on a brief visit. Shortly after, he wrote to his mother and proposed changing his thesis to a study of ‘The signs and symptoms of acute love… they are very interesting when one comes to think about it’.
The next time they met, Ory had taken a job as matron at a prep school in Cheltenham, just five minutes’ walk from Ted’s family home. Ory’s first visit to Westal was not auspicious. Ted had been sent home from his work at St George’s Hospital in London, having contracted tuberculosis, then a life-threatening disease. Ted’s faith in God meant that even with death in measurable distance, he felt remarkably calm, but he could not offer Oriana a future.
She was unusually tall and ‘scraggy thin’ with large, iceberg-blue eyes. Despite her ethereal appearance she was extremely practical and dismissed the risk of contagion. Ted nicknamed her the ‘Useful Help’, or ‘UH’ and it stuck. But in spite of her help, Ted deteriorated and was sent to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland.
Letters from Ory were a lifeline. After receiving one he wrote: ‘… so my left lung may go and bury itself’. On his return to Cheltenham, he introduced Ory to his hobby, ornithology, or as he described it, ‘birding’.
Oriana and Ted writing letters in the garden. Right: Captain Scott on a visit to WestalWatching kestrels spiralling, they ‘made love’ as far as they were able. Ted was still coughing badly and his sister Polly was a contentious chaperone.
From the moment Ory accepted Ted’s proposal of marriage in 1899, he began to get stronger. He completed his medical studies while focusing on his hobby: painting birds. He and Ory wrote nearly every day. In the margins of his letters he drew swallows nesting, swooping in and out of the words.
Then, in ‘a regular bolt from the blue’, a fellow ornithologist proposed Ted for a post on Captain Scott’s expedition. Scott offered him a place, despite his scarred lungs. Ted embraced this unlikely turn of events as an act of God. Ory had become engaged to an invalid but she married an explorer. Three weeks after their wedding in 1901, he sailed away with Scott on the Discovery. His family did not expect that they would ever see him again.
Alone now, at her writing desk in the Westal garden, Ory sent letters to every port en route to Antarctica. Ted sent her his love and bird pictures by return. In November, he left civilisation and sailed south. Letters would be delivered by relief ship once a year when the sea ice thawed.
Two years later, Ory embarked on a gruelling voyage to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, to await his return. But Ted did not return. He had decided to stay south an extra year.
The letters that he sent back with the relief ship were full of love. Ory mastered her disappointment and tried to embrace ‘the glamour of being a Discovery wife’. She was resourceful, travelling extensively in New Zealand and working in North Island. When Ted did return in 1904, he recalled that their reunion ‘beat a wedding hollow’.
The second time Scott asked Ory’s husband to accompany him was six years later. Ted warned Ory that he could not bear to think that she ‘would fail’. She did not. She was so precious to him that he wrote to a friend confiding that ‘I often wonder why she has not been taken from me as good things so often are when they become the breath of one’s very existence’.
Ory and Ted on their wedding day. Right: with friends on a day out to Cranham WoodsJust before he left with Scott on the Terra Nova, Ted wavered. He looked to Ory, if not for consent, for reassurance. She gave it. On 28 November 1910, they said goodbye.
Two years later, in 1912, Ory sailed out to New Zealand. Once again, she received Ted’s letters, but he’d stayed south with Scott for an attempt on the South Pole. Shortly afterwards, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen returned from the Antarctic having reached the South Pole first.
Ory longed for Ted’s return the following spring. But a year later, in February 1913, she heard a newspaper hawker at Christchurch station calling out the headlines, ‘Antarctic Disaster’. Ted was dead. Soon after, she received his effects together with a letter written 11 months before:
‘To my Beloved Wife,
‘Life has been a struggle for some weeks now on this return journey from the Pole… Today may be the last effort… I shall simply fall and go to sleep in the snow, and I have your little books with me in my breast pocket… God be with you – my love is as living for you as ever…’
It was not the last letter she received from him. Months later, Mrs Oates, also bereaved, found another tucked inside Titus’s diary. After a decade of marriage, half of which Ted had been away, Ory still sometimes spoke of him in the present tense.
Ory’s Christian faith carried her through until, in 1916, her favourite brother Noel was killed, with 19,000 others, on the first day of the Somme. She lost her faith but she retained a belief in what she described as ‘an immanent spirit of goodness’, despite everything.
Oriana Wilson died two weeks before the end of the Second World War.
Katherine MacInnes is writing Oriana Wilson’s biography and would be grateful for any original documents relating to her.