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Frank Oates

(vero;2025-Jan-31)

Frank Oates was born in 1840 near Leeds and was a passionate naturalist and ornithologist turned explorer. He read natural sciences at Oxford (1860-1863) but had to end his studies due to ill health. For the next years he lived a quiet life filled with walks in Wales, the Lake District and Ireland, observing flora and fauna and sketching what he saw along the way. In 1871, hoping that warmer climes would improve his health, he set-off on his first major expedition to California and Central America. He spent a lot of time in Guatemala collecting and studying endemic birds and insects; a glass display of some of the birds he brought back can be seen in the museum.

He became famous for his second (and fatal) expedition to southern Africa which started in 1873 and took him from the British colony of Natal north through Matabeleland to the Victoria Falls which he reached on 31 December 1874. His brother William (father of Lawrence) accompanied him for the first part of the trip but returned to Britain when the party reached Pietermaritzburg in January 1874.

Frank continued alone; he was one of the first Europeans to see the falls in full flood during the rainy season. He recorded his strenuous travel with much detail: his meetings with other European settlers, explorers and hunters, his sojourn at the court of King Lobengula, king of the Ndebele people and his time travelling through the landscapes of southern Africa, noting painstakingly flora and fauna.

He died of a fever (probably malaria) on the way back on 5 February 1875, five weeks after having left the Falls. It was his brother Charles who, having collected his diaries, edited and published them in 1881 under the title "Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls". This exhaustive article about Frank's African expedition makes for an interesting read.

Click on this link to view, read or download the book from the Internet Archive Website.

Opening pages of Frank Oates' posthumous book relating his travel to the Victoria Falls. Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website.

Glass display of birds collected by Frank in Guatemala.

Members of the 1873-1875 African expedition. Back left to right: William Oates (his brother and future father of Lawrence), Gray, Buckley. Front left to right: Thomas Bell (William's servant), Frank Oates with his dog Rail. Credit: Gilbert White's House & The Oates Museum.

The museum recreated an impression of the wagon in which Frank and his companions travelled through southern Africa.

Page of Frank's book with a sketch showing their wagons at a camp. Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website.

Frank recorded painstakingly his progress and noted details about the state of the roads and paths, the animals he saw and the flora he found along the way. There are three maps in the book summarising all those details. Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website.

Detail of the map of the previous picture.

Sketch of the Victoria Falls by Frank Oates. Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website.

Page 160 (left): sketch of Rock and Rail, the two dogs who accompanied Frank on the expedition. Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website. Rail's story is a moving one. He went missing shortly after Frank's death and the surviving team retraced their steps until they found him guarding Frank's grave. Rail and Rock were brought back to England. Rail died five years to the day of Frank's death in 1880 followed by Rock three weeks later. The page 265 on the right tells about this "touching incident". Downloaded from the Internet Archive Website.

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Go back to Gilbert White's House and the Oates Collection, go on to Lawrence Oates or go up to Hampshire