Major-General The Honourable Robert Bruce (15 March 1813 – 27 June 1862) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who served as Governor to the young Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.

Family background

He was the fourth son of

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (; 20 July 176614 November 1841) was a British nobleman, soldier, politician and diplomat, known primarily for the controversial procurement of marble sculptures (known as the Elgin Ma ...

, and the Earl's second son by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of

James Townsend Oswald James Townsend Oswald (23 February 1748 – 3 January 1814) was a Scottish politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1768 and 1779. Oswald was the son of James Oswald, a politician of Kirkcaldy. The Oswald family became the dominant ...

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, (20 July 181120 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served as Governor of Jamaica (1842–1846), Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1 ...

was his elder brother, and his younger brothers included

Frederick Wright-Bruce Sir Frederick William Adolphus Wright-Bruce, GCB (14 April 1814 – 19 September 1867) was a British diplomat. Early life Frederick Bruce was the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and his second wife Elizabeth, yo ...

and Thomas Charles Bruce.William Bruce Armstrong, "Bruce, Earls of Elgin and Kincardine", in Sir James Balfour Paul ed., ''The Scots Peerage'', volume III, Edinburgh 1906
pp. 493494

Military service

Bruce entered the Army at the age of seventeen,Obituary
in ''Colonist'', volume V, issue 519, 14 October 1862, p. 4. with the purchase of a commission as ensign and lieutenant in the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

on 18 June 1830. His promotion to lieutenant and captain was purchased on 22 February 1833. Bruce served as adjutant of the regiment from 28 May 1835 until July 1836 and then on the staff of Sir Edward Blakeney, the commander-in-chief in Ireland. Bruce served as military secretary to his brother Lord Elgin, the governor of Jamaica, from 1841 to 1846, in the meantime being promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Grenadier Guards, again by purchase, on 2 August 1844. He acted again as military secretary to his brother from 1847 to 1854, during Elgin's term as

Governor-General of the Province of Canada The Governor General of the Province of Canada was the viceregal post of the pre-Confederation Province of Canada that existed from 1840 to Canadian Confederation in 1867. The post replaced the Governor General of New France and later Governor Ge ...

, and on 20 June 1854 he was granted

brevet rank In many of the world's military establishments, a brevet ( or ) was a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but may not confer the authority, precedence, or pay of real rank. ...

as colonel. He returned to England in that year and served briefly as a surveyor-general at the Board of Ordnance. He was promoted major of his regiment, without purchase, on 16 September 1856, and served until he retired as a lieutenant-colonel on the half-pay unattached list on 7 December 1858.

Governor of the Prince of Wales

In 1858 Bruce was appointed governor to the seventeen-year-old Prince of Wales, following the dismissal of the Prince's tutor Frederick Waymouth Gibbs.H. C. G. Matthew, "Edward VII" in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

''
Online version
Retrieved 16 December 2013. He attended the Prince during his time at Christ Church, Oxford and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

between 1859 and 1861, and accompanied him on his trips to Rome in 1859 and Canada and the United States in 1860. On 7 December 1859 he was promoted major-general. In 1862 he went with the Prince of Wales on a tour of the Near East, where he caught a fever. He died at St James's Palace in the rooms of his sister Lady Augusta Bruce, later wife of

Dean Stanley Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, (13 December 1815 – 18 July 1881), known as Dean Stanley, was an English Anglican priest and ecclesiastical historian. He was Dean of Westminster from 1864 to 1881. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he w ...

. Following Bruce's death Sir William Knollys was appointed comptroller and treasurer to the Prince.

Marriage

Bruce was married on 2 May 1848 to Katherine Mary, second daughter of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 6th Baronet. They had no children. She was appointed a

Woman of the Bedchamber In the Royal Household of the United Kingdom the term Woman of the Bedchamber is used to describe a woman (usually a daughter of a peer) attending either a queen regnant or queen consort, in the role of lady-in-waiting. Historically the term 'Ge ...

to Queen Victoria in 1866, and was a Lady of the Order of Victoria and Albert. She died on 3 December 1889.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Robert 1813 births 1862 deaths Younger sons of earls Grenadier Guards officers British Army major generals

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...