Edward Bruce, 10th Earl of Elgin


Edward James Bruce, 10th Earl of Elgin, 14th Earl of Kincardine, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier. He was the eldest son of Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin and Lady Constance Carnegie. He was Assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Career

He had been a captain in the Forfar and Kincardine Royal Garrison Artillery (Militia), and when the Territorial Force was created in 1908, he became commanding officer of the Highland (Fifeshire) Heavy Battery, RGA, with the rank of major, a position that he held at the outbreak of World War I. He served in the war, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was mentioned in dispatches twice. In 1918–19, he was assistant director of Labour and a temporary colonel and Labour commandant. After the war, he received the CMG.

Career

He was made a Knight of the Thistle on 3 June 1933. He also held the Order of Polonia Restituta.
After the formation of the Scottish Home Guard in January 1941, Bruce was made commander of No. 3 Zone, South Highland Area. He held this appointment until the end of the war.
As a colonel in the Territorial Reserve, Bruce held a number of honorary colonelcies in the Territorial Army and Canadian Militia:
On October 29, 1958, during the dedication of the California Masonic Memorial Temple at 1111 California Street in San Francisco, Bruce, then senior past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, presented on its behalf a gift of a marshal's baton made of Scottish Oak to the Grand Lodge of California F.&A.M. California Grand Marshal John T. Bond used this baton for the first time to escort Bruce back to his seat. That same baton has been used each year by successive Grand Marshals to lead the ceremonial opening of the Grand Lodge of California before over a thousand attendees. Each year, California Grand Marshals are also given exact reproductions of the baton, for use at functions outside the Grand Lodge building and as a memento of their service, along with a history and symbolism of Bruce's presentation.
He was also lieutenant of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland.

Personal life

On 5 January 1921, he married the Hon. Katherine Cochrane, daughter of Lt.-Col. Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults and Lady Gertrude Boyle. In 1938, his wife was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
The couple had six children:
In 1964, he commissioned a statue of Robert the Bruce.
He died at the age of 87 in 1968.