Robert Service, the son of an Ayrshire bank clerk and Lancashire
mill owner's daughter, was born in Preston in 1874. At the age of 5
he was sent to live with his grandfather who was postmaster at
Kilwinning. Whilst there, he developed an abiding love of poetry,
influenced by the English romantic poets of the early 19th century
and of course by Robert Burns. In 1883 the whole family moved to
Scotland and settled in Glasgow, where Robert attended school.
After working briefly for a shipping firm, he followed his father
into banking. However, he dreamed of a life in the New World and in
1896, at the age of 22, he emigrated to America. After drifting
through various jobs along the west coast, in 1903 he began working
for a Canadian banking company at Whitehorse in the remote Yukon
territory. He began writing stories about life in Yukon for the
local paper and in 1908 had a collection of verse published -
'Songs of a Sourdough'. Its success led to him resigning from the
bank to concentrate on his writing.
In 1912, Service took on a job as a correspondent in the Balkan
War. He remained in Europe when the First World War began, serving
as a volunteer ambulanceman. Whilst in France, he married and
settled in Brittany. After living in exile during the Second World
War, he returned to France in 1946 and remained there until his
death in 1958.
