362 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
William Spiers Bruce, LL.D. By R. N. Rudmose Brown, D.Sc., 
The University, Sheffield, and James Ritchie, M.A., D.Sc., Royal 
Scottish Museum. 
(MS. received March 8, 1922. Read March 20, 1922.) 
I. 
In William Spiers Bruce, whose death occurred at Edinburgh on 28th 
October 1921, the Royal Society of Edinburgh has lost a Fellow of many 
years’ standing, and science the foremost authority on Polar regions and 
an experienced and successful explorer. Born on 1st August 1867, the 
son of Dr S. N. Bruce, Bruce studied medicine at the University of Edin- 
burgh, but before completing his course sailed for the Antarctic with the 
Balcena in 1892. In 1895 he took charge of the Meteorological Observa- 
tory on Ben Nevis, and during 1896-97 he was in Franz- Josef Land with 
the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. In 1898 he sailed with Major 
Andrew Coats in the Blencathra to Novaya Zemlya and the Barents Sea, 
and the same summer accompanied the Prince of Monaco to Spitsbergen 
in the Princesse Alice. In 1899 he was again with the Prince of Monaco 
in Spitsbergen. In 1902 Bruce organised and led the Scottish National 
Antarctic Expedition in the Scotia to the Weddell Sea, returning home in 
1904. Later expeditions to Spitsbergen under his leadership were in 1906, 
1907, 1909, 1912, 1914, and 1919. His last visit was in 1920. In 1910 he 
announced plans for a second Scottish Antarctic Expedition, but did not 
succeed in raising sufficient funds to start. In 1914-15 Bruce was in the 
Seychelles in cliarge of a sperm-whaling venture which closed down on 
account of the war. Bruce was one of the founders of the Scottish 
Zoological Park, a scheme of which he had long been an advocate. By 
his own efforts he equipped and maintained the Scottish Oceanographical 
Laboratory as a centre of Polar research, until failing health compelled 
him to disband it a year ago. 
Bruce never sought reward for his work, and shrank from any form of 
publicity, but he was a gold medallist of the Royal Scottish Geographical 
