Scoresby spent his early years at "Vaucluse" in Richmond, Victoria, before returning to England in about 1867 with his parents and three younger sisters following the death of his father's brother and business partner.

His paternal family had roots in Nova Scotia where his great-grandfather, Mr Justice Thomas Chandler Haliburton, was an MP, and author of an important history of the area: Historical and Statistical Account of Nova-Scotia.

In 1906 Scoresby Routledge married a fellow Oxford graduate, Katherine Pease and an extraordinary if troubled collaboration took place that lasted for 20 years producing a body of scholarly work that has for the most part stood the test of time.

As an ethnographer and anthropologist Scoresby Routledge spent his life visiting and documenting primitive cultures that were changing and disappearing in the early 20th century.

Scoresby Routledge later described in the book he co-wrote with his wife Katherine on the Kikuyu, of travelling for four months on a beaver hunting expedition with the Mi'kmaq in densely forested country.

He set up a fixed base camp at Fort Hall which was then a remote area located 60 mi (97 km) to the north east of Nairobi.

Information regarding native customs was gathered as he rode about the country with members of the tribe and in the evening when everyone was welcome at the big fire in front of his tent.

The Routledges covered various aspects of the culture with chapters on social and political life (where Katherine focused on the position of women), dress, land and agriculture, flocks and herds, food and cookery and warfare.

En route to the Pacific they passed through the Patagonia Passage in South America, collecting artifacts that are now held at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

An example of their work there is reflected in the vocabulary cards held by the Royal Geographical Society and the large model of an outrigger canoe from Mangareva that is on display on the first floor of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

In a brief account he gave to The Times newspaper on his return he described the difficulties of the perpetually moist limestone terrain, with narrow rock passages and lush vegetation impeding progress to the extent that the average rate of travel was .25 miles (0.40 km) per day.

Routledge crossed the range from the Rio Grande side to the east, accompanied by a party of Maroons and a sportsman visiting Jamaica, a Dr.

[5] Scoresby and Katherine separated in Sydney, Australia, in 1923, although for several years they periodically lived together in both London and "Ewers", their home in Bursledon, Hampshire.

There is an added inscription on his grave in Latin, Quo Modo Lucem Diemque Omnibus Hominibus Ita Omnes Terras Fortibus Viris Natura Aperuit.

[10] That large archive consisted of diaries, field notes, original illustrations, photographs, and artifacts, among other materials, relating to their expeditions in Kenya and Polynesia, among other places.