At the age of 25, 'Cherry' was one of the youngest members of
Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition (
1910–1913). This was Scott's second and last expedition to Antarctica. Cherry was initially rejected, but made a second application along with a promise of £1,000 towards the cost of the expedition. Rejected a second time, he made the donation regardless. Struck by this gesture, and at the same time persuaded by
Dr Edward 'Bill' Wilson, Scott agreed to take Cherry as assistant biologist.
With Wilson and
Lieutenant Henry 'Birdie' Bowers, Cherry made a trip to
Cape Crozier in July 1911 during the austral winter in order to secure an unhatched
Emperor penguin egg. Cherry suffered from high degree
myopia, seeing little without spectacles that he could not wear while sledging. In almost total darkness, and with temperatures ranging from -40°f to -70°f, they man-hauled their sledge 60 miles from Scott's base at
Cape Evans to the far side of
Ross Island. Frozen and exhausted, they reached their goal only to be pinned down by a blizzard. Their tent was ripped away and carried off by the wind, leaving the men in their sleeping bags under a thickening drift of snow, singing hymns above the sounds of the storm. When the winds subsided however, by great fortune they found their tent lodged nearby in rocks. Having successfully collected three eggs and desperately exhausted they eventually arrived back at Cape Evans, sometimes only managing a mile and a half a day. Cherry later referred to this as the 'worst journey in the world', and gave this title to his book recounting the fate of the 1910-1913 expedition.
Cherry was afterwards responsible for helping lay depots of fuel and food on the intended route of the party which would attempt to reach the South Pole, and accompanied the team that would make the attempt on the
South Pole to the top of the
Beardmore Glacier. Cherry was in the first group of those four who returned on December 22, 1911. On his return, Cherry took over navigation on a number of occasions using the sight of his partner until his partner became
snow-blind. Without a sighted companion, Cherry managed to overcome his extreme myopia by navigating using the faint gleam of the sun.. In February 1912 Cherry was responsible for leading a team making one last supply run out to the 'One Ton Depot'. He waited there seven days hoping to meet the South Pole team on their return journey, although the mission was to resupply the dump and not to provide an escort for the polar party 'home' who weren't expected to reach this point for another week or two. Cherry finally turned back on March 10, 1912 in order to preserve his dog team which were short of food, and out of concern for the health of one of his team members. Nineteen days later, Scott, Wilson and Bowers died 11 miles south of the One Ton Depot in a blizzard.
By April 1912, with the Antarctic winter approaching, it was apparent to Cherry and the remaining expedition members that the South Pole team had died.
Atkinson took command, and Cherry suffering from strain was appointed record keeper and continued zoological work. The scientific work continued through the winter and it was not until October 1912 that a team led by Atkinson and including Cherry was able to head south to ascertain the fate of the South Pole team. On 12 November, the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers were found in their tent, along with their diaries and records, and rock samples they had hauled back from the mountains of the interior. Cherry was deeply affected, particularly by the death of Wilson and Bowers, with whom he had made the journey to Cape Crozier.
Cherry developed
clinical depression shortly after returning from Antarctica. Although this condition was never cured, the explorer was able to self-treat himself to some extent by writing down his experiences. He many times revisited the question of what might have been done differently to save the South Pole team - most notably in his 1922 book
The Worst Journey in the World. The book remains a classic, having been acclaimed as the greatest true adventure story ever written.
The three intact penguin eggs that Wilson, Bowers and Cherry brought back form Cape Crozier are now in the collection of the
Natural History Museum, London.
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