A Polar Medal awarded to a Dorset man who was a member of Captain Robert Scott's doomed Terra Nova expedition has emerged for sale for £12,000.

Chief Petty Officer Frederick Parsons, from Bridport, was part of the 65-man crew that set sail for the Antarctic with the intention to be the first men to reach the South Pole.

Capt Scott famously made it to the Pole on January 17, 1912, only to discover Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him to it by 34 days.

His five-man party, made up of himself, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Edgar Evans and Henry Bowers, all died on the return leg.

Parsons, who did not join the shore party, returned to Britain following the tragic expedition and served on submarines in the First World War.

He was the last Terra Nova survivor to die, when he passed away aged 91 in 1970.

Parsons' Polar Medal and war medals have been consigned for sale with Sheffield Auction Gallery.

They have come from a private collector and this is the first time they surfaced on the market.

Specialist valuer John Morgan said: "This is, without doubt, the rarest medal I have ever had the honour to bring to the market, from one of the most iconic stories in British history."

Parsons was born in 1878 in Bridport and joined the Royal Navy in 1896, aged 18.

He applied to be a crew member on the Terra Nova expedition in 1909 and was chosen from 8,000 applicants.

After his war time service, he left the Royal Navy in 1919 to run a shoe repair business.

Capt Scott's Terra Nova expedition arrived at Cape Evans on Ross Island in January 1911.

After seeing out the austral winter Capt Scott's polar party of 16 men set off in the November to be the first people to reach the South Pole.

The supporting party of 11 men returned as planned at various stages during the 800-mile trek, leaving Capt Scott, Wilson, Oates, Evans and Bowers to reach the pole.

On their return journey, they endured dreadful conditions and suffered from a lack of food and frostbite.

Evans died on February 17, 1912, Oates walked from his tent into a blizzard never to be seen again on March 16 and Scott, Wilson and Bowers died in the tent around March 29.

Eight months later, a search party found the tent, the bodies and Capt Scott's diary.

Parsons' medal group consists of the Polar Medal with Antarctic 1910-1913 Bar, War Medal, Victory Medal and 1914/15 Star.

The sale takes place on November 1.