 William Speirs Bruce FRSE ( 1 August 1867 – 28 October 1921 ) was a Scottish naturalist , polar scientist and oceanographer who organized and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition ( SNAE , 1902 – 04 ) to the South Orkney Islands and the Weddell Sea . Among other achievements , the expedition established the first permanent weather station in Antarctica . Bruce later founded the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in Edinburgh , but his plans for a transcontinental Antarctic march via the South Pole were abandoned because of lack of public and financial support . 
