W. G. Burn Murdoch

William Gordon Burn Murdoch (22 January 1862 – 19 July 1939) was a Scottish painter, travel writer and explorer. Murdoch travelled widely including India and both the Arctic and the Antarctic. He is said to be the first person to have played the bagpipes in the Antarctic. He published several travel books as well as being an accomplished artist. A cape in the South Orkneys is named in his honour.

Life

Burn Murdoch was born in Edinburgh to Jessie Cecilia (née Mack) and Dr. William Burn-Murdoch. His father was the first to take the name Burn-Murdoch, but the hyphen was not used by his son. His elder brother, John Burn-Murdoch, joined the military and became the commanding engineer of state railways in India.

He attended a local school and then studied law at Edinburgh University. When he emerged, however, he went to study art in Antwerp and Paris.

Burn Murdoch was closely associated with Patrick Geddes' Fin de Siècle Scottish cultural revival. He and the Symbolist painter John Duncan curated the art content of the Summer Meetings which Geddes organised at University Hall Extension in Edinburgh in the 1880s and '90s. Burn Murdoch contributed illustrations to the Spring, Summer and Winter volumes of The Evergreen: A Northern Seasonal published by Patrick Geddes and Colleagues between 1895 and 1897. He was also involved in Geddes' plan to create a mural around Castlehill Water Reservoir. He created a banner 1.4 metres long showing prominent figures in Scottish history. The mural was never created but colour and monochrome versions of the ten lithographs making up his design were sold.