BORN ON THIS DAY

CAPTAIN ROBERT SCOTT (1868-1912). Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic and died in his attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. Found in the tent alongside his team’s frozen bodies were 35lb of fossils, which the dying explorers had thought too valuable to jettison, even though lightening their load might have helped their survival. BILLIE WHITELAW (19322014). The Bafta- winning actress from Coventry (right) was best known for playing Mrs Baylock in the 1976 film The Omen and for work with playwright Samuel Beckett, who called her the ‘ perfect actress’. She referred to his death as ‘ an amputation’. She first enrolled in a drama group to overcome her stutter and suffered stage fright all her career, saying it terrified her more than death.