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Dedicated to my friend Urs Koenig. Our rendezvous this Summer (2014) at the Beau Rivage's garden shoreline of lake Lucerne enthused me into moving forward with this design idea I'd been playing around with since our move to Heydon. More images at www.theproductdesigners.com
The best reason to live in Port Orchard, though no urban sprawl (but that may change with the prices on the east side of the Sound sky-rocketing), fishing, an Olympic rain shadow, and good shopping help.
The C5 was to be the downfall of British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, who in the late 70s and early 80s was famed for his electronic products such as scientific calculators and the Spectrum series of personal computers. I still remember the launch of this contraption being featured on the tv news in (I think) 1985. It was to be a total commercial disaster for the company. They are now collectors items, so I was very surprised to see this one in a yard full of old trucks.
Today, the ZX81 wanted to play in the garden.
Please take a look at www.retrocomputers.eu for more info about my retro computer collection.
Gleichstrommotor, 0,4 PS, 25 km/h, Baujahr 1985, 17000 Stück, die Kraft des Elektromtors konnte mit Pedalantrieb unterstützt werden
of course i was drawn to everything about this old, old sinclair truck. sinclair oil's branding revolved around this adorable dinosaur. i ate it up.
2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying
14 February 2016 - Houston, TX, USA
Canada Soccer by Mexsport
Christine Sinclair celebrates 159th career goal
(Sophie Schmidt, Diana Matheson, Deanne Rose, Janine Beckie, Shelina Zadorsky, Desiree Scott, Allysha Chapman; not pictured Erin McLeod, Josée Bélanger, Kadeisha Buchanan)
William Sinclair was created Earl of Caithness in 1455 by King James II of Scots (1437-1460). By 1470 William reluctantly resigned his title Earl of Orkney with his encompassing Island estates, including his castle of Kirkwall to King James III of Scots (1460-1488) in exchange for the incomplete castle of Ravenscraig on the Fifeshire coast and other token lands. The resigned Orkney estate was then used as a dowry for the King's marriage to Princess Margaret of Denmark. In effect Orkney became a Stewart interest much to the dismay of the disinherited Sinclairs, who continued to interfere in the Orkney estates. Notably in 1529 at the battle of Summerdale north of Kirkwall when George 3rd Earl of Caithness was slain along with all of his men while fighting his own distant kin the Sinclairs of Orkney on behalf of King James V of Scots (1513-1542) and again during the reign of King James VI of Scots (1567-1603) when George 5th Earl of Caithness sent another Sinclair army which successfully routed the Stewart rebels led by Patrick Stewart Earl of Orkney.
William as 1st Earl of Caithness and Earl or 'Jarl' of Orkney is most noted in history for the construction of Roslin castle and the ornate Rosslyn chapel in Mid Lothian in the 1440's. His son, also William,2nd Earl of Caithness built Girnigoe and the castle of Knockinnan near Dunbeath some time after 1470 and before his death at the battle of Flodden in 1513 along with King James IV of Scots (1488-1513). His son John then became 3rd Earl of Caithness and he too, as already noted, was slain in battle in 1529,leaving his son George to inherit Girnigoe as 4th Earl of Caithness.
Anciently a third of the lands of Caithness, including the future site of Girnigoe were held by the Cheyne family. Around 1350 (some accounts claim 1354) Reginald Cheyne, the Clan head, died ending the male line of descent, leaving two daughters to inherit the Cheyne estates. One of his daughters married on to the Keiths while the other is alleged to have married on to the Sinclairs, dividing the estate into two. Which would explain why the Keith tower of Ackergill is only one mile away from the Sinclair fortalice of Girnigoe. However this alleged marriage appears false since the Sinclair claim to Caithness was based on the original Jarldom of Orkney and Caithness so in theory they also held rights to the lands of Ackergill. The two castles of Ackergill and Girnigoe held by two rival families so close together was bound to lead to violence. Not only between the Keiths and Sinclairs but with the Sunderlands, Oliphants and Mackays who also held lands around Caithness. In fact these feuds got so out of hand that even the Campbells from further afield got involved. It is also stated that Reginald Cheyne's second daughter in actual fact married Nicholas Sutherland since this was how the Sutherlands obtained the Cheyne castles of Old Wick and Berriedale which then passed to the Oliphants and Forse castle which passed to the Keiths. Interestingly both Old Wick and Berriedale were later annexed by the belligerent Sinclairs in their attempts to rule the whole of Caithness.
In I544 George 4th Earl of Caithness seized the Episcopal fortress of Scrabster castle, north of Thurso, from Alexander Gordon, a son of the Earl of Sunderland who had been installed as a temporary Bishop while the Bishop of Caithness was banished. Later when the Earl of Sunderland was made hereditary keeper of Scrabster castle it was described as being "situated among the wild and uncivilised Scots". This phase though directed at the Caithness area in general surely sums up the lifestyle of the Sinclairs of Caithness.
In 1547 George sallied forth from Girnigoe to attack and seize Ackergill castle, taking Alexander Keith said captain and his servant John Skarlet hostage. Detaining them not only at Girnigoe but at the moated oblong tower house of Braal near the river Thurso. Which had only recently passed to the Sinclairs from the Crichton family. Why Keith and Skarlet were moved between these two strong castles and other unspecified locations is unclear. Likely it was in case the Keiths mounted a rescue attempt. Or it may be that any assault on Ackergill by the Keiths would result in the deaths of the hostages. So Keith and Skarlet were bargaining chips.
Despite his high handed behaviour George was given remission for his actions by Queen Mary the Regent (Mary Queen of Scots mother). By 1549 Queen Mary installed Lord Oliphant as keeper of Ackergill possibly to separate the feuding Keiths and Sinclairs until a more permanent solution regarding ownership of Ackergill could be arranged. Also in 1549 George was distracted from this feud, for a time, while be began building the long Z-plan tower house of Barrogill castle near John O' Groats, known today as Castle Mey held by Elizabeth The Queen Mother. In 1556 George again besieged Ackergill when it was in the hands of William Keith Earl Marischal. This time though he appears to have stormed the barmkin wall but been unable to secure the tower house. Yet again he was given remission for his actions which angered the Keiths.
George's attacks were not only confined to local rival Clans but on his own kin Sinclair of Dunbeath ,descended from a younger brother of the 3rd Earl of Caithness, noted in possession of Dunbeath castle in 1529,who built the L-plan tower house of Dounreay in the 1560's. As the dispute escalated Dounreay castle was besieged by a Sinclair army from Girnigoe. The outcome of the siege appears to be unrecorded.
In 1567 at Helmsdale castle during a banquet, George arranged for John 11th Earl of Sunderland, his wife Helen and family to be poisoned by Isobel Sinclair the Earl of Sunderland's aunt. The plan was that Isobel's son would inherit the Earldom of Sunderland. So these estates could be seized by the Sinclairs. However, her son was accidentally poisoned and died along with the other guests aside from the true heir who was able to escape and inherit as 12th Earl of Sunderland.
As time progressed George became so extreme in his activities that by 1571 he, it is alleged, even arrested his own son and heir, John, Master of Caithness, imprisoning him in one of the cells of Girnigoe on suspicion of rebelling against his rule as Justiciary of Caithness. Certainly in 1569 John had clashed with the Oliphants in the village of Wick resulting in him besieging Lord Oliphant in the oblong keep of Old Wick castle for eight days, until Lord Oliphant was obliged to surrender due to lack of food and water as noted in the report sent to the Privy Council. It appears the Sinclairs then continued to occupy Old Wick. And in 1570 John had burnt down Dornoch Cathedral and sacked the town. But there was no suggestion of him trying to seize Girnigoe or Knockkinnan.
Surprisingly other historians have unearthed another reason for John's imprisonment. On one hand George as Justiciary of Caithness as an official had to be seen to rebuke his son. But apparently behind the scenes he was furious at his son's "lenity towards the town folk of Dornoch". John simply wasn't as ruthless and efficient as his father leaving witnesses behind to complain to the Privy Council. Because John took too long to die (seven years) his father had him fed on nothing but "salted beef, and then, with holding all drink from him, left him to die of a raging thirst". Although other accounts claim John died at Knockinnan.
In 1582 John's son George inherited as 5th Earl of Caithness. One of his first actions as Earl was to kill the two jailers responsible for his father's murder,for which he received a remission from the Privy Council as such action was justifiable. He then started a raiding campaign against the Earl of Sunderland which was unacceptable to the Council and he was bound over to keep the peace. In 1588 he resisted a 12day siege at Girnigoe by the Earl of Sunderland who failed to make an real impression so the surrounding lands were sacked and Keiss castle across the bay from Girnigoe was damaged before the raiders withdrew. George then repaired Girnigoe adding the ornate oriel window. Around the same time the Sinclair family as a whole undertook a great building work. In 1592 they added a new wing to Cadholl castle. In 1600 a cadet branch of the Dunbeath Sinclairs built the L-plan tower of Brims castle at the same time as George rebuilt Keiss as a Z-plan tower. Also to keep up with his kin George began building the new cluster of towers in front of Girnigoe known as Sinclair castle as a symbol of his wealth and power. In 1606 he acquired Berriedale castle adding it to the long list of Sinclair strongholds throughout Caithness.
With his empire expanding George quickly ran short of funds so he resorted to minting his own forged coinage at Girnigoe castle to circulate throughout the North of Scotland to try and cover his many debts. He like his ancestors before him also interfered in local feuds when he sent Clan Gunn disguised as Clan MacKay of Dirlot castle (which originally belonged to the Gunns) to burn Lord Forbes corn. When the MacKays sent witnesses to prove they were innocent George had them drowned so no links could be traced back to him. In 1623 Girnigoe/Sinclair castle and Ackergill (which had recently passed legally to the Sinclairs) were stormed and sacked by Sir Robert Gordon of Sutherland. The Gordons also appear to have assaulted Braal but were unsuccessful in taking this tower but damaged the new Manor house which was under construction nearby.
In 1643 George died, as he was predeceased by his son, Lord Berriedale and grandson, the Master of Berriedale, his title and debts passed to his great grandson also George 6th Earl of Caithness. In 1651 Oliver Cromwell's troops seized and damaged Dunbeath, Dounreay and Ackergill. Cromwell also sent a garrison of 70 foot and 15 horse to hold Girnigoe/Sinclair castle. Despite family debts George started building Thurso castle and married a daughter of Campbell, Marquis of Argyll perhaps in an effort to cover his great grandfather's debts as the Campbells were major creditors. But when he died without issue in 1676,his widow married her own kinsman, Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy who then claimed Girnigoe/Sinclair castle and estates including the title Earl of Caithness. Which resulted in the rightful heir, George Sinclair of Keiss castle storming Girnigoe/Sinclair and Old Wick castles by force of arms in 1679 to contest his right as Earl of Caithness which had been denied him by law. In reply in 1680 the Campbells marched north in an attempt to seize Old Wick castle under cover of any early morning mist. Suddenly the fog cleared and the castle garrison raised the alarm sending riders to Girnigoe/Sinclair castle. The Campbells appeared to withdraw but split their forces into two to ambush and rout the Sinclair army from Girnigoe/Sinclair at the battle of Altimarlach some four miles from Wick. Girnigoe/Sinclair was then stormed by the Campbells and Keiss castle damaged (today there are still musket holes above the doorway of Keiss from this assault). In 1690 George Sinclair of Keiss again besieged Girnigoe/Sinclair castle this time with heavy cannon ironically destroying his inheritance. The castle though back in Sinclair hands with George as 7th Earl of Caithness was abandoned as a residence leaving the sad shell that remains today
Sinclair made some nice plastic dinosaurs in the 1960s. They were sold at the World's Fair, among other places. Sinclair also gave out the small Ajax dinosaurs at their gas service stations. The Sinclair figures have an obvious Charles R. Knight influence and are generally a bit larger than the Marx figures. I do not have the Sinclair Triceratops.
This is Sinclair. At least I *think* that's how he introduced himself, but it was 2am and I was a little tipsy at the time, so I may not be remembering correctly. Anyway, Sinclair approached me and my two friends in an effort to sell us a $1 Street Sheet. So I offered him $2 to take his portrait, and he happily obliged. Sinclair said he is a Vietnam War veteran, who also describes himself as "Down, but not out." After I took his photo, he asked what our names are, then he shook my hand and continued down the street.
Inspired by Thomas Hawk's $2 Portraits Project.
This is Sinclair's Bay in Caithness on the East coast of Scotland, about 10 miles south of John O’ Groats and 7 miles north of Wick. The Sinclairs are a Highland Scottish clan who held lands in the north of Scotland, the Orkney Islands, and the Lothians. The chiefs of the clan were the Barons of Roslin and later the Earls of Orkney. No certain record exists but it is likely that the Sinclairs originally came from Saint-Clair in Normandy.
Caithness is an area of about 712 square miles. As you can see the land is flat, in contrast to most of the remainder of the North of Scotland. Until the latter part of the 20th century when large areas were planted in conifers, this level profile was rendered still more striking by the almost total absence of forest. Basically, it’s a land of open, rolling farmland, moorland and scattered settlements.
Although not obvious in my photo, those castle ruins on the left are perched on a sheer cliff. That’s the old Keiss Castle. I say the old one because that ‘new’ building further inland glories in the name Keiss 'castle' too, although it is really a large and elegant Scottish Baronial house built in the late 1700s.
There was a small fortification here during the late medieval period, but in the last years of the 16th century the 5th Earl of Caithness built that castle that is now in ruins, being four storeys high, plus an attic level and a vaulted basement. There do not appear to be any defensive structures on the landward side, suggesting that Keiss was built purely with an eye to a seaborn attack. I guess that’s not surprising since this part of the coastline was a favourite landing place of raiders and pirates from Norway and Denmark. Local people lit a beacon on one of the few hills when raiders were spotted. However, the lack of land defences may have been a mistake. In 1623 when George Sinclair defied King James VI (I of England) over something, and the King not being amused, dispatched Sir Robert Gordon to sort him out. The rebellious Earl provisioned his castles for a siege [he owned two others by the sea], perhaps then realised that the King’s army were advancing by land, so he caught the next available ferry to Orkney. [OK, I made that bit up, but he did go by sea to Orkney somehow]. All three castles surrendered without a fight to Sir Robert but were eventually returned to the Earl's son, presumably on condition he behaved himself.
World War II saw Keiss resume a military function as, despite its remote location, the defence of Caithness became a defence priority. The coastline's proximity to the Orkney Isles - where the large anchorage at Scapa Flow was the wartime home to the larger warships of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet - made the coastline strategically important. Furthermore, with the German occupation of Norway in April 1940, Caithness suddenly seemed particularly vulnerable. The long flat beach was the recipient of a large minefield - allegedly the UK's longest in 1940 - augmented with anti-tank obstacles plus machine-gun pillboxes spaced at 400 yard intervals. Substantial land forces were based in the area with the grounds of Keiss Castle being converted into a military camp. My old boss complained to me that he spent most of his National Service after WW2 digging holes in this area…..
Geisterjäger John Sinclair / Heft-Reihe
Die grosse Gruselserie von Jason Dark
Varunas Hexenreich
Titelbild: Maren
Bastei-Verlag
(Bergisch-Gladbach / Deutschland; seit 1978)
ex libris MTP
Former home of:
Sinclair Lewis (Novelist and Playwright)
Located: 3028 Q Street NW
Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values. His style is at times droll, satirical, yet sympathetic.
Born Harry Sinclair Lewis in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he began reading books at a young age and kept a diary. A dreamer, at age 13 he unsuccessfully ran away from home, wanting to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1908. He began his writing career by producing romantic poetry, then followed with romantic stories about knights and fair ladies. Lewis's first published book was Hike and the Aeroplane, which appeared in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham. By 1921 he had six novels published.
Lewis was known for giving strong characterization to modern working women and for his concern with race. Some of his most famous books were Main Street and Babbitt. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926 — which he rejected — for Arrowsmith, a novel about an idealistic doctor. Elmer Gantry was the story of an opportunistic evangelist, if not an outright charlatan; it was banned in Boston and other U.S. cities (Main Street, Babbitt, Kingsblood Royal, and Cass Timberlane have also all been banned at one time or another). In his Nobel lecture, he lamented that "in America most of us — not readers alone but even writers — are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues," and that America is "the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today."
In 1928 he married journalist Dorothy Thompson and in 1930 their son Michael Lewis was born.
Restless, Lewis traveled a lot and in the 1920s he would spend time with other great artists in the Montparnasse Quarter in Paris, France where he would be photographed by Man Ray. His last great work was It Can't Happen Here, a speculative novel about the election of a Fascist as U.S. President.
Alcohol played a dominant role in his life; he died of the effects of advanced alcoholism in Rome, Italy.
He created the fictional cities of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota and Zenith, Winnemac.
Various Quotes of Lewis:
"I love America, but I don't like it."
"This is America - a town of a few thousand, in a region of wheat and corn and dairies and little groves. The town is, in our tale, called "Gopher Prairie, Minnesota". But its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere."
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."
1885 Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota to Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis.
1891 Mother dies. Father marries Isabel Warner in 1892.
1902 Attends Oberlin in Ohio.
1903-1906 Attends Yale University, serves as editor of Literary Magazine, works on cattleboats during two summers.
1906 Spends months doing odd jobs at Upton Sinclair's Helicon Hall (utopian community).
1906-1908 Works at temporary jobs, graduates Yale in 1908.
1908-1915 Travels U.S., works in New York publishing houses.
1912 Hike and the Aeroplane published (first book, a boy's adventure story).
1914 Marries Grace Hegger. Our Mr.Wrenn published.
1917 The Job and The Innocents published. Son, Wells, born.
1919 Free Air published.
1920 Main Street published, first major commercial success.
1922 Babbitt.
1925 Arrowsmith.
1926 Mantrap. Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith but refuses it. Father dies.
1927 Elmer Gantry.
1928 The Man Who Knew Coolidge. Divorces Grace Hegger, marries journalist Dorothy Thompson.
1929 Dodsworth.
1930 Son Michael born. Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature on November 5 (first American to be so honored).
1933 Ann Vickers
1934 Work of Art. Assists Sidney Howard in adapting Dodsworth to the stage.
1935 It Can't Happen Here and Selected Stories.
1936-1942 Writes several plays and acts in a few of them.
1938 The Prodigal Parents.
1940 Bethel Merriday. Teaches briefly at University of Wisconsin.
1942 Divorces Dorothy Thompson.
1943 Gideon Planish.
1944 Lt. Wells Lewis killed by sniper in Piedmont Valley, France (near Alsace-Lorraine) during WW II.
1945 Cass Timberlane.
1947 Kingsblood Royal.
1949 The God Seeker.
1951 Dies in Rome of heart disease. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, MN. World So Wide published posthumously.
Skylar Gudasz came through town in support of Teenage Fanclub for a show at the The Sinclair. For photos of Boston area bands doing their thing, visit Daykamp Music at:
with Mikes hand...it seemed a good idea at the time while he was trying to work out the inscription :-)
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Andrew SINCLAIR MDRN
Colonial Secretary of New Zealand
excerpt from Daily Southern Cross - 19 April 1861"
"The first collector of NZ specimens of natural history in botany, conchology and entomology. He sent home such a variety of plants, shells and insects as to induce Dr Grey of the British Museum to commence the first scientifically arranged catalogue which may be found appended to Dieffenbach's work on New Zealand."
Excellent obituary:
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
also
Mary Alexander SINCLAIR
wife of Rev. David BRUCE
who died at Broughly Fell
5 Dec 1870 aged 50
"Mary hath chosen that good path
this shall not be taken from her"
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Andrew Sinclair was born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 13 April 1794, the son of John Sinclair, a weaver, and his wife, Agnes Renfrew. He never married. From 1814 to 1818 Sinclair studied medicine and surgery at the University of Glasgow, at L'Hôpital de la Charité in Paris, and at the University of Edinburgh where he qualified as a licentiate in 1818. In 1822 he joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon, and for 10 years, from 1823, served on the Owen Glendower at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Mediterranean. During this period he collected botanical and zoological specimens which he sent to the British Museum.
After taking further lectures in medicine, Sinclair joined the Sulphur in 1835 as surgeon, and accompanied Captain William Beechey on his survey expedition to the Pacific coasts of North and South America. Until he was invalided home in 1839, he continued to pursue his interest in botany, sending specimens from California, Mexico, Central America and Brazil to the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These collections established his reputation as a foremost collector. After recovering his health he began a brief period as a surgeon on convict ships to Australia. On one voyage in 1841 he visited the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, arriving on the Favorite on 24 October. There he joined the missionary William Colenso, and Joseph Dalton Hooker, assistant surgeon on James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition which was in New Zealand at the time, on several local botanical expeditions. He subsequently presented to the British Museum a collection of shells and animals which included the shellfish pipi, crabs, spiders, dragonflies, cicadas, butterflies, corals and sponges. He returned to Scotland the following year.
In September 1843 Sinclair arrived in Tasmania as surgeon superintendent on the convict ship Asiatic. After signing off he intended to return to England. However, in Sydney he met Robert FitzRoy, the governor elect of New Zealand. The two struck an immediate rapport, and FitzRoy offered Sinclair a free passage to Auckland. They arrived there on 23 December 1843. On 6 January 1844, after much persuasion from FitzRoy, Sinclair reluctantly accepted the appointment of colonial secretary, and was also made a member of the Legislative Council on 8 January.
From 1844 until the establishment of responsible government in April 1856 Sinclair served as colonial secretary under Governors Robert FitzRoy and George Grey, Acting Governor Robert Wynyard, and Governor Thomas Gore Browne. He had wide discretionary powers, but showed no particular ability in dealing with the continuing struggle between the governors and settlers which dominated politics in early Auckland. He established a reputation for being 'honest, upright, scrupulous and laborious', however, and is also credited with choosing and training subordinates who became the nucleus of an efficient public service.
In Auckland Sinclair also devoted himself to business transactions and a variety of cultural pursuits. He was widely regarded as a shrewd businessman, to whom many, including FitzRoy and Grey, entrusted their investments. He was fond of literature, music and art, and through his travels and thirst for knowledge commanded a rich repertoire of stories which he loved to relate. A staunch Presbyterian, he was a founder of St Andrew's Church, Auckland, in 1847, and was also a founder of the Auckland Museum in 1852.
Although his political career was unremarkable, Sinclair is best remembered for his contribution to natural history. During his term of office as colonial secretary he spent much of his spare time collecting botanical specimens for Kew. After his retirement he visited Scotland and Europe, where he discussed a wide range of scientific matters with Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley and Richard Owen. On 20 January 1857 he was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He returned to New Zealand in late 1858 to collect material for J. D. Hooker's Handbook of the New Zealand flora (1864--67). On 20 February 1861 Sinclair joined Julius Haast on what was to be his last, and fateful, expedition - Haast's geological survey of the headwaters of the Rangitata River, Canterbury. On 26 March 1861 Sinclair was drowned while crossing the Rangitata. He was buried at Mesopotamia station nearby.
J. D. Hooker had dedicated his Flora Novae-Zelandiae (1853) to Andrew Sinclair and to two other prominent collectors, William Colenso and David Lyall. Sixteen New Zealand plants were named in Sinclair's honour, including an orchid, sedges, herbs, shrubs and trees, notably the puka ( Meryta sinclairii ). Sinclair's efforts during the Beechey expedition were commemorated by W. J. Hooker and G. A. W. Arnott in the plant genus Sinclairia (Asteraceae), while his association with Haast is remembered in the mountain daisy Haastia sinclairii. Haast in turn honoured his friend and field companion by naming Mt Sinclair, near Mesopotamia, and the Sinclair River. Had he not died tragically, Sinclair might well have extended his collecting to rank equal with that of Colenso. On his death J. D. Hooker wrote: 'His loss has been a very great one, whether as a botanist or as an enthusiastic and liberal patron of science.' [1]
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Born at Cramond, near Edinburgh, Scotland, on 20 June 1824, David Bruce was the son of a carpenter, also named David Bruce, and his wife, Margaret Robertson. The family moved to Perthshire, where David attended parish schools and Mr Davidson's Classical Academy in Perth. In 1847 he graduated MA from the University of Edinburgh, and then studied theology at New College, Edinburgh. Licensed by the Free Church of Scotland Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1851, he became an assistant minister in Aberdeen in 1852. He was offered posts in Boston and Montreal, but chose to accept an appointment to Auckland, New Zealand, and was ordained on 4 January 1853 by the Presbytery of Aberdeen.
David Bruce arrived in Auckland on 10 June 1853 on the Simlah and set about healing divisions in his congregation at the church in Waterloo Quadrant, and reducing its substantial debt, as well as founding new charges and establishing Presbyterian government. He was a founder of the Presbytery of Auckland in 1856, and played a key role in the formation of the northern Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in 1862. Bruce became convener of its Home Mission Committee, a position he was to hold for 20 years.
On 18 October 1859 in Auckland David Bruce had married Mary Alexander Sinclair. They were to have four daughters and three sons. He was released from his parish, now called St Andrew's, in 1863, to travel throughout New Zealand and report on the establishment of new congregations. He raised money through his correspondence with the churches in Scotland and Ireland and recruited many able ministers, as well as educating local candidates and working for higher education. (He later served on the senate of the University of New Zealand and the Auckland University College council.) In 1866 Bruce was moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, also serving on key committees and helping to set up procedures to deal with church property and finance.
Bruce had great physical stamina and covered astonishing distances in his church extension work, but by 1870 he was near exhaustion and took leave in Britain. Mary Bruce died there in 1870. Bruce wrote and spoke extensively in Scotland and recruited 12 more ministers for New Zealand, returning to Auckland in 1872. He was clerk of assembly until 1882 and was the assembly's full-time general agent from 1877 to 1881. The assembly's financial difficulties led to his resignation and a struggle to claim the arrears owed him. Although in title he remained senior minister of St Andrew's until 1892, he had effectively retired from the parish in 1877. He had no active duties in the parish and after 1881 devoted most of his energies to journalism in Auckland and Wellington, writing leaders for the New Zealand Herald and editing the New Zealand Times. He was also involved with the New Zealand Observer. He had long been a prolific writer, who had helped to found the New Zealand Presbyterian Magazine (forerunner of the Outlook ) in 1872 and took a keen interest in political and ethical issues. Bruce was an untiring worker for the union of the two Presbyterian churches in New Zealand. He took a liberal position on temperance and family law reform and was an enthusiastic supporter of international Presbyterian co-operation.
In 1889 Bruce went to New South Wales. He received a DD from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in 1891, and was inducted into the parish of North St Leonards, Sydney in 1893. He continued to be active in church administration, education and extension. In 1897 he was moderator of the New South Wales General Assembly and from 1903 to 1905 moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, and remains the only person to have held such office on both sides of the Tasman. He died at Killara, New South Wales, on 15 December 1911. [2]
Ref [1]:
Molloy, Brian P. J. 'Sinclair, Andrew 1794 - 1861'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
URL: www.dnzb.govt.nz/
Also a photograph on DNZB site
Ref [2]:
Breward, Ian. 'Bruce, David 1824 - 1911'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
Also a photograph on DNZB site
URL: www.dnzb.govt.nz/