CAPTAIN Scott famously called it ‘the last place on earth’.

But it’s actually been rather busy there recently as a flurry of Senior Service personnel hauled, huffed and puffed their way across the ice and snow to the very foot of the earth.

A four-strong team led by Capt Sean ‘The Ice Man’ Chapple RM – the first British military team make a return journey to the Pole – hoisted the Union Jack, White Ensign, the flag of the RM Corps and a replica of the standard flown by Capt Scott on his ill-fated expedition, at 2.18am on the day after Boxing Day.

Barely had Capt Chapple’s team lowered their flags than Lt Polly Hatchard unfurled the White Ensign at the same location, thus becoming the first British Servicewoman to reach 90˚S.

Both sets of explorers were following in the footsteps of immortal names in polar exploration.

For Capt Chapple and his fellow icemen – Maj Paul Mattin, Surg Lt Cdr Andy Brown and Mne Craig Hunter – it was a chance to honour Capt Scott.

For Lt Hatchard – aka ‘Polar Polly’ – it was a chance to follow the route Ernest Shackleton took on his Nimrod expedition.

He fell short of the Pole by just 97 miles; the goal for Lt Hatchard (RNAS Yeovilton) was to retrace his steps then reach the foot of the earth by the same route.

Her slog across the Antarctic was rather shorter than the Polarquest team; it set out to reach the Pole unaided by dogs or vehicles, using only human strength to cover the 700 miles from the Patriot Hills to the world’s end.

That they did on December 27 after 44 days on the ice dragging sledges weighing around 20 stones across Antarctica.

After hoisting their various flags, the explorers held a service of remembrance for all those who have lost their lives in the quest for Antarctic exploration.

Polar Polly set off where Shackleton’s journey ended and hence she took just eight days to reach the Pole – a journey she likened to “being on a giant white treadmill”.

 “I’m overwhelmed with pride and emotion – pride to be the first military female to the South Pole and pride to do it in the centenary year of Shackleton, but there’s a far greater emotion to have done this for so many women to raise awareness of breast cancer,” she added.