The famous Penguin and Piper Photograph

The final insult was the withholding of the Polar Medal, a decision Speirs Bruce blamed on Markham. Despite a number of other honours that Speirs Bruce received, this ultimate accolade, awarded by the Sovereign on the advice of the Royal Geographical Society, and given to members of every other British expedition in the early 20th century, was denied to any member of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, including its leader.

Speirs Bruce made repeated atempts to secure the medal for himself and his team. In 1916, aſter Markham’s death, he wrote to his local MP asking him to intervene in the mater, closing his

leter with the moving words: “Robertson (the skipper of the Scotia) is dying without his well won white ribbon! The Mate is dead!! The Chief Engineer is dead!!! Everyone as good men as have ever served on any Polar Expedition, yet they did not receive the white ribbon.”

Spiers Bruce’s own characterisation of his expedition as being one which had “Science as its talisman…… but Scotland emblazoned on its flag” did not win him any friends at Whitehall or in Buckingham Palace.

Nothing happened, however, and when I raised the mater again on the centenary of the expedition in 2002 , the Secretary of the Polar Medal Commitee still refused to right this long- standing wrong.

Interestingly, recent research by Dr John Dudeney suggests the refusal may have been because of the views of the King, himself. He held that the medal was only to be awarded to expeditions that had a military component or background. That royal view, rather than Markham’s hostility, may have brought about the refusal. But whatever the reason, the slight rankled with Speirs Bruce until his death in 1921; aſter which, at his request, his ashes were scatered in South Georgia.

At the exposed wheel of Scotia 90 August 2015