'I leave them very ill provided for': Captain Scott's dying plea for his wife and son The letter was written to Scott's friend Sir Francis Bridgeman Sir Francis had been Scott's Commanding Officer in the Royal Navy Scott wrote ten letters to friends and family when he knew he would die Doomed hero: Freeze Frame of Captain Scott writing his journal in the Winterquarters Hut A letter written by Polar hero Captain Scott as he neared death, with a poignant plea for his family to be looked after, has been published in full for the first time. Part of the pencilled letter to a friend was already in the public domain, in which Scott wrote of his doomed team setting a "good example to our countrymen" and facing their fate "like men." But two lines were kept hidden by the 1912 document's previous owner. They say: "I want you to secure a competence for my widow and boy. I leave them very ill provided for, but feel that the country ought not to neglect them. In a touching PS he ends: "Excuse writing, it is -40, and has been for nigh a month." The complete letter to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, who had been Scott's commanding officer in the Royal Navy, is unveiled today by Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute to mark the 101st anniversary of the explorer's death. It is one of ten he wrote to friends and family when he realised he would not return home. Archivists believe most were written around the time of his final diary entry on March 29, which read: "For God's sake look after our people." He is presumed to have died that day. SPRI archivist Naomi Boneham said: "The letters are written on paper ripped from diaries. It is hard to imagine how desperate it must have felt. It is incredibly moving. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, 43, and his team of Dr Edward Wilson, Captain Laurence Oates, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Petty Officer Edgar Evans, were beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, and died on the return journey. A fund in response to Scott's plea on behalf of the team's dependents raised £75,000, equivalent to more than £5.5million now. His son Peter, who was two at the time of Scott's death, became the leading naturalist and artist who co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature. In love: Captain Scott pictured with his wife Kathleen. He asked his friend Sir Francis Bridgewater to make sure Kathleen and their son would be looked after Happier times: Captain Robert Scott and his wife marry at Hampton Court in 1908, left, and a portrait of Mrs Scott, right Last post: An extract from Captain Scott's final letter to Sir Francis Bridgeman thanking him for his friendship Final goodbyes: The letter is one of ten that Captain Scott wrote to friends and family when he realised he might die Poignant: Scott's letter To Sir Francis Bridgeman My Dear Sir Francis I fear we have shipped up - a close shave. I am writing a few letters which I hope will be delivered some day. I want to thank you for the friendship you gave me of late years, and to tell you how extraordinarily pleasant I found it to serve under you. I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job. It was the younger men that went under first. Finally I want you to secure a competence for my widow and boy. After all we are setting a good example to our countrymen, if not by getting into a tight place, by facing it like men when we were there. We could have come through had we neglected the sick. Good-bye and good-bye to dear Lady Bridgeman. Yours ever R. Scott Excuse writing, it is -40, and has been for nigh a month.