Froze to death while trying to aide fellow explorers on the 1912 Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica. His body was never recovered.
Veteran of the Second Boer War in South Africa. While serving in the conflict in March 1901 he sustained a gun shot wound to the thigh which caused permanent damage and left him with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.
Saw service in India, 1909.
His uncle was Frank Oates, a naturalist and African explorer.