Alexander Low Bruce was a native of Edinburgh and was born in 1839. He was educated at the city's Royal High School and then received business training in a Leith office. When still a teenager he entered the employment of William Younger, brewers. He went to London becoming a branch manager for the firm at St Paul's wharf, Upper Thames Street. In 1873 he went to the USA to take orders for the firm's products and while there he kept a diary of this extensive tour (which included New York, Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Chicago, Omaha, St Louis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and New Orleans). In 1876, Bruce married David Livingstone's daughter Agnes. In Edinburgh again, he became a partner then deputy chairman of Younger's. Bruce was deeply interested in the commercial expansion of the British Empire and travelled to Africa in furtherance of this. He was also a keen admirer of the work of the Louis Pasteur whom he had met when French scientist visited the city in 1884. He resolved to make a gesture to the University in memory of Pasteur's visit by promoting the founding of a Chair in the new discipline of Public Health. He did not live to see this however. Alexander Low Bruce died on 27 November 1893.