His rightful place

The portrait at the back of this group is of Dr William Speirs Bruce, the Leader of the highly successful, but still not well enough known, Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of 1902 to 1904.

The picture was taken in the Speirs Bruce Room at SAMS in Dunstaffnage and the Scottish Association for Marine Science with its strong Polar links has been instrumental in helping to keep Speirs Bruce's memory and achievements alive .  The centenary celebrations also helped and a few years ago I blipped another outcome from those, the erection of a plaque at Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh which can be seen here .

Last Thursday I got  confirmation of another move forward in recognition and by total co-incidence around an hour later I was contacted by Professor Nick Owens, the Director of SAMS about a visit he was hosting today by descendants of Speirs Bruce.   

The two young men in the picture (Michael & Kyle)  are Speirs Bruce's great-great-grandsons.  Their mother, her second husband and the wife of Kyle (on the right) are the others in the picture.   They are visiting from Canada and it was great to meet them and to tell them about the new development which, alas, I cannot  yet report here as the press release with the announcement has still to be finalised between all the parties involved.

It is not the award of the Polar Medal which many of us will still campaign for.  But it is another step towards ensuring that Speirs Bruce's unique contribution to science , the Antarctic and Scotland is at last properly acknowledged so that he can take his rightful place in our history.