WILLIAM Speirs Bruce, who led the first and only Scottish National Antarctic Expedition between 1902 and 1904, has received long overdue recognition from the polar research community.
The honour came as Canadian relatives of Bruce visited Scotland to learn of his legacy, including the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory.
Though relatively unknown in comparison to contemporaries such as Robert Falcon Scott, Bruce has now been recognised by the naming of a laboratory at the British Antarctic Survey Research Station on Signy Island, in the South Orkney Islands.
Michael Russell MSP, who has long championed Bruce’s contribution to Arctic and Antarctic research, helped arrange a commemorative plaque to be erected at the laboratory and delivered the news to the scientist’s Canadian great, great grandsons, Michael and Kyle Watson, during a meeting hosted by the Oban-based Scottish Association for Marine Science in its William Speirs Bruce lecture room.
Also present at the meeting in SAMS were the institute’s director, Prof Nicholas Owens, and Henry Burgess, head of the UK Arctic Office.
Michael Watson, from Ontario, said: “It is very heartening to see so many people interested in the work of our great, great grandfather. For us, his work has always just been a family story but we are delighted to learn that it is a story for Scotland, the UK and for science in general.”
Russell said: “I am immensely grateful to the British Antarctic Survey, to Dr John Dudeney who made the initial approach to them regarding some form of recognition and to the Scottish Government for agreeing to fund the plaque.
William Speirs Bruce made a distinguished and long-lasting contribution to Antarctic research but also to a number of branches of science including climatology and oceanography. He was passionate about the Antarctic, about science, and about Scotland. It is wonderful that he is increasingly recognised as the significant scientific figure he undoubtedly was. This honour will, I hope, create ever more interest in him and those who worked with him in such a successful way.”
Burgess said: “The UK has a great history of polar exploration and we have produced many of the pioneers of modern day Arctic and Antarctic research. William Speirs Bruce is certainly among those, although he is perhaps less well known outside of scientific circles. I hope this recognition will go some way to addressing that.”
Who was William Speirs Bruce?
WILLIAM Speirs Bruce (1867-1921) is one of the most underrated explorers and scientists this country ever produced, writes Hamish MacPherson.
Born in London to Scottish and Welsh parents he was eventually educated at Edinburgh University where he studied medicine, though his main interest was the fledgling science of oceanography.
He took part in whaling and zoological surveys in the Arctic and Antarctic before returning to Edinburgh and marrying his wife Jessie. Bruce devised and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, which sailed from Troon on November 2, 1902, and made two voyages to the Antarctic, returning in July 1904 to the Marine Station in Millport, where he was presented with the Royal Geographical Society’s Gold Medal and a telegram of congratulation from King Edward VII.
Some say the pioneering studies and inventive methods used by Bruce and his colleagues laid the foundation of modern climate change studies. They were certainly ahead of their time but received nothing like the publicity accorded to Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton.
The achievements of the expedition included the establishment of a manned meteorological station and the discovery of new land to the east of the Weddell Sea. It also led to the establishment of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in 1906. Bruce was not popular with some members of the Royal Geographical Society. His belief in an independent Scotland did not sit well with imperialists.
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