Marriage and Family Life
It is uncertain how Bruce was employed after his return from Spitsbergen in autumn 1899. In his whole life he rarely had settled salaried work, and usually relied on patronage or on influential acquaintances to find him temporary posts. Early in 1901 he evidently felt sufficiently confident of his prospects to get married. His bride was Jessie Mackenzie, who had worked as a nurse in Samuel Bruce's London surgery. Bruce's secretive nature, even among his circle of close friends and colleagues, was such that precise information about the wedding—its exact date, its location—has not been recorded by his biographers. However, his marriage has now been found. It took place on the 26 January 1901, at Nigg, in Ross & Cromarty, at the Chapelhill United Free Church after banns. Bruce gave his occupation as Naturalist and Zoologist, son of Samuel Noble Bruce, surgeon MRCS, and a bachelor, while Jessie gave her status as a spinster, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, master tailor, deceased. Bruce gave his residence as 17 Joppa Road, Portobello, Edinburgh, while Jessie gave hers as Chapelhill, Nigg, and as one of the witnesses was Isabella Mackenzie it would appear that Nigg was Jessie's home parish. (Colin B. Withers).
The Bruces settled in the coastal Edinburgh suburb of Portobello, in the first of a series of addresses in that area. A son, Eillium Alastair, was born in April 1902, and a daughter, Sheila Mackenzie, was born seven years later. During these years Bruce founded the Scottish Ski Club and became its first president. He was also a co-founder of Edinburgh Zoo.
Bruce's chosen life as an explorer, his unreliable sources of income and his frequent extended absences, all placed severe strains on the marriage, and the couple became estranged around 1916. However, they continued to live in the same house until Bruce’s death. Eillium became a Merchant Navy officer, eventually captaining a Fisheries Research Ship which, by chance, bore the name Scotia.
Read more about this topic: William Speirs Bruce
Famous quotes containing the words marriage, family and/or life:
“What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many?”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“The family environment in which your children are growing up is different from that in which you grew up. The decisions our parents made and the strategies they used were developed in a different context from what we face today, even if the “content” of the problem is the same. It is a mistake to think that our own experience as children and adolescents will give us all we need to help our children. The rules of the game have changed.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“You have nothing more to fear. Not death nor decay. Here in this cup is my gift of life to you. I’m going to make you immortal. And I, too, shall drink and be immortal. We will not return to Egypt. Our world shall be wide, our time shall be without end. Has any man before offered a gift of eternal life to his bride?”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Yousef Bey (John Carradine)