Jump to content

Henry Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lord Aberdare
Lord Aberdare in 1917
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
25 February 1895 – 20 February 1929
Hereditary peerage
Preceded byThe 1st Baron Aberdare
Succeeded byThe 3rd Baron Aberdare
Personal details
Born
Henry Campbell Bruce

(1851-06-19)19 June 1851
Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Died20 February 1929(1929-02-20) (aged 77)
St George Hanover Square, London, England
Spouse
Constance Mary Beckett
(m. 1880)
Children9, including Clarence and Eva
Parent

Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare, VD, DL, JP (19 June 1851 – 20 February 1929), styled The Honourable from 1873 to 1895, was a British soldier and peer.

Background

[edit]

Born in Merthyr Tydfil,[1] Bruce was the eldest son of Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, who had served as Home Secretary.[2] His mother Annabella was his father's first wife and the daughter of Richard Beadon.[2] He was educated at Rugby School and at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. In 1895, he succeeded his father as baron.

Career

[edit]

His military career, by virtue of his status in the nobility, was started early: he served in the Welch Regiment and became a major of the 3rd Battalion in 1899. A year later he was appointed its honorary lieutenant-colonel and in 1910 honorary colonel of the 5th Battalion. Later Bruce was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Battalion. He was decorated with the Volunteer Decoration.

Bruce was president of University College as well as of the National Museum Wales. He was a Justice of the Peace, assigned to Glamorgan and represented the county first as Deputy Lieutenant from December 1901,[3] later as Vice Lord Lieutenant.

He was a member of the London Survey Committee, a voluntary organisation publishing architectural surveys of the capital.[4]

Family

[edit]
Coats of arms of the Barons Aberdare

He married Constance Mary, daughter of Hamilton Beckett on 10 February 1880. The couple had nine children together, five sons and four daughters.[2]

Henry Campbell Bruce's memorial at Aberffrwd cemetery in Mountain Ash, Wales

His oldest son and heir apparent Henry was commissioned a captain in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Scots, but was killed in action soon after the First World War broke out.[6] Bruce died himself in St George Hanover Square,[7] London, on 20 February 1929[8][9] and was succeeded in the barony by his second son Clarence. His granddaughter, Pamela Digby, became American Ambassador to France.

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Dod (1915), p. 41
  3. ^ "No. 27383". The London Gazette. 6 December 1901. p. 8648.
  4. ^ "Members of the Survey Committee Pages 4-7 Survey of London Monograph 12". British History Online. Guild & School of Handicraft, London, 1926. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  5. ^ Pottle, Mark (2004). "Bruce [née Petre], Mildred Mary (1895–1990), motorist and aviator". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63962. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 9 August 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ CWGC entry
  7. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  8. ^ "Mr Henry Bruce (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  9. ^ Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London, England) (1984). The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. The Society. p. 233.

References

[edit]
[edit]
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baron Aberdare
1895–1929
Succeeded by