 During his lifetime Bruce received many awards : the Gold Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1904 ; the Patron 's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1910 ; the Neill prize and Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1913 , and the Livingstone Medal of the American Geographical Society in 1920 . He also received an honorary LLD degree from the University of Aberdeen . The honour that eluded him , however , was the Polar Medal , awarded by the Sovereign on the recommendation of the Royal Geographical Society . Although the Medal was awarded to the members of every other British or Commonwealth Antarctic expedition during the early 20th century , the SNAE was the exception ; the medal was withheld . 
