Alexander Charles Arbuthnot Bruce
Captain Alexander Charles Arbuthnot Bruce (1889-1916)
1916 Obituary [1]
Captain ALEXANDER CHARLES ARBUTHNOT BRUCE, A.S.C., was born in Edinburgh on 1st September 1889.
He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy from 1897 to 1908, when he began an apprenticeship of five years with Messrs. James Milne and Sons, Ltd., of Abbeyhill, Edinburgh; and during a part of this time he studied at the Heriot-Watt Day College in the winter sessions, and also attended classes at Edinburgh University.
He remained with the firm after the completion of his apprenticeship, but, on the outbreak of the War, having been a keen Territorial since leaving school, and being at the time a Lieutenant in the A.S.C. (T.), he was mobilized and stationed for a year in Scotland, during which time he obtained his Captaincy. The Lowland Mounted Brigade was then sent abroad, and as supply officer with it he served at Cape Helles for some months till the evacuation in January 1916.
He was then ordered to Egypt, and was supply officer at Dueidar, near the Suez Canal, when an overwhelming number of Turks and Arabs attacked the oasis. Owing to a shortage of officers Captain Bruce volunteered for any service, and held an outpost with a few men for some hours.
Reinforcements arrived, but the relieving officer fell, upon which Captain Bruce went out to his rescue, but in doing so was mortally wounded, and died two hours later, on 23rd April 1916, in his twenty-seventh year.
He was elected a Graduate of this Institution in 1914.