The joint committee organising the British response to this resolution contained a difference of view. Murray and the Royal Society argued for a largely civilian expedition, directed and staffed by scientists, while Markham and most of the RGS contingent saw a National Antarctic Expedition as a means of reviving naval glories, and wanted the expedition organised accordingly. Markham's tenacity finally won the day when in 1900 he secured the appointment of his protégé Robert Falcon Scott, by then a torpedo lieutenant on , as the expedition's overall commander. In doing so he thwarted an attempt to place the leadership in the hands of Professor John Walter Gregory of the British Museum.