William Speirs Bruce

Forgotten Polar Hero

Isobel P. Williams, John Dudeney

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781445680828
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies

William Speirs Bruce was a Scottish nationalist and naturalist who led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–04) as well as participating in or leading many other polar expeditions from 1892 through to 1919, particularly to Spitsbergen. He is now largely forgotten compared with the 'greats', Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. This biography returns to primary sources to provide a new and controversial view of the relationship between Bruce and the then President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham, and also draws conclusions about Bruce's personality, in particular suggesting that he was probably on the autistic spectrum. Bruce was ahead of his time in dreaming of a network of cooperating meteorological stations in the south. He handed over the Laurie Island observatory to the Argentinians. He can be considered the Father of Meteorology in the South Atlantic. He had a lasting impact, publishing his work, under great difficulties, in six scientific volumes. His endeavours in the Arctic were notable for the extensive new surveys he undertook. The British Antarctic Survey is an enduring testament to his scientific vision and has named its laboratory in the South Orkney Islands in his honour. Despite being a strong nationalist – or perhaps because he was – his outlook was internationalist. Bruce was never awarded the Polar Medal; this book explains why.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Prologue
• 1 - The Early Life of a Naturalist
• 2 - The First Visit to Antarctica, the Dundee Expedition on Balaena
• 3 - The Ben Nevis Observatory
• 4 - The Jackson–Harmsworth Expedition to Franz Josef Land
• 5 - Novaya Zemlya, the Barents Sea and Spitsbergen
• 6 - Preparations for the Scotia Expedition
• 7 - The Scotia Expedition, 1902–1904
• 8 - The Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory
• 9 - The Impact of the First World War on Bruce
• 10 - The Arctic: The Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate
• 11 - Bruce’s Final Illness and Death: Reflections on His Life
• Plates
• Appendix 1 - Captain Thomas Robertson, 1855–1918
• Appendix 2 - Excerpts from The Log of the Scotia by William Speirs Bruce1
• Appendix 3 - Plans for a Trans-Antarctic Journey
• Appendix 4 - Bruce and the Polar Medal
• Appendix 5 - Attempt by Bruce to Lease the South Sandwich Islands
• Appendix 6 - Bruce and the Patron’s Medal
• Appendix 7 - An Insight into Bruce’s Character
• Appendix 8 - The Bruce Memorial Medal
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms
• Notes
• Bibliography