Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good Victorian C.B. and India service group of three awarded to Colonel A. McC. Bruce, 4th Punjab Infantry, late 1st Gurkhas: his son was gazetted for a posthumous V.C. in 1919, but the Colonel was too ill to attend an investiture at Buckingham Palace and instead it was presented to the recipient’s mother at a special ceremony held in Jersey

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, swivel-ring suspension device and riband buckle; India General Service 1854-95, 3 clasps, Bhootan, Jowaki 1877-8, Hazara 1888 (Lieut., 1st Goorkha Regt.); Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Capt., 4th Pun. Infy.), the whole contained in an old velvet-lined Spink & Son, London wooden glazed display frame, with engraved silver plaque, ‘Col. A. McCrae Bruce, C.B., 4th Punjab Infantry P.F.F., Born 5th Jan. 1842 Died 6th April 1920’, enamel on the first very slightly chipped in places, the two campaign awards with refixed suspension and occasional edge bruising, ‘Jowaki 1877-8’ and ‘Hazara 1888’ clasps loose on riband, otherwise generally very fine and better (3) £1800-2200

C.B. London Gazette 23 May 1900.

Andrew McCrae Bruce was born in January 1842, the son of William Bruce of Symbister, Shetland, by then a family dynasty in decline, if only because of the cost of the family seat, Symbister House, which was built from stone quarried from the mainland in 1823 - even though forced labour was used the final bill was £30,000 (the last Laird of Symbister died in 1944 and since then the house has been used as a school).

Young Andrew was originally commissioned into the 2nd Bengal Fusiliers in November 1860, but transferred to the 1st Gurkhas in the following year and was present in the Bhootan operations of 1865-66 (Medal & clasp). Next transferring to the 4th Punjab Infantry, in which regiment he would remain employed until the early 1890s, Bruce was present in the Besoti-Afridi operations of 1869, including the capture of Garoh village - for which he received the special thanks of the Government of India - and in the Miranzai operations of the same year. But it was not until his particpation in the Jowaki 1877-78 operations that he added another clasp to his India General Service 1854-95 Medal.

Then in 1879-80, and by this time a senior Captain (shortly to be promoted Major), he fought with the 4th Punjabis in the Second Afghan War, not least in the Chakmani and Zaimusht expeditions, the latter operations under Brigadier-General Tytler being mounted to punish the local tribesmen ‘for their numerous depredations’. Thus the regiment’s part in the action at Zawa on 14 December 1879, an occasion best summarised by Shadbolt:

‘The 4th Punjabis formed the leading portion of the advanced guard of Tytler’s column, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel H. P. Close, which forced the Pass, and destroyed the villages. The enemy at one time occupied a very formidable position, and their fire being accurate and well sustained, the regiment suffered some loss, Lieutenant and Adjutant T. J. O’D. Renny falling mortally wounded early in the engagement. Seeing that a front attack would be attended by great loss, Colonel Close despatched part of the regiment under Major Hawes to turn the enemy’s flank. The movement was highly successful: the regiment fired a volley and charged with great impetuosity, causing the enemy to vacate the position with considerable loss, and enabling the rest of the force to advance without further molestation.’

Fresh back from his campaigning in Afghanistan, Bruce was quickly re-employed on the North West Frontier in the Mahsud-Waziri operations, when he was mentioned in Brigadier-General T. G. Kennedy’s despatch dated 20 June 1881 and brought to the special notice of the C.-in-C. Further active service ensued in the Zhob Valley in 1884, yet it was not until his part as a Lieutnenant-Colonel in the Hazara operations of 1888 that he added his third and final clasp to his India General Service Medal. However, he was again mentioned in despatches for his services in the 1st Miranzai Expedition of 1891, when he commanded a column.

Advanced to full Colonel in November 1890, Bruce served as British Agent in Gilgit 1894-94 and as a Colonel on the Staff at Ferozepore 1896-97. His final appointment was as Local Brigadier-General Commanding at Bangalore, and, having been awarded a good service pension, he was placed on the Unemployed List in January 1899. His C.B. was gazetted in the following year.

Bruce’s only son, Lieutenant William Arthur McCrae Bruce, in 59th Scinde Rifles, was awarded the V.C. for his great gallantry in leading a trench bombing party at Givenchy in December 1914 - ‘In spite of being wounded in the neck he walked up and down the trench encouraging his men to hold out against several counter-attacks until he was killed’ (London Gazette 4 September 1919 refers). However, his father was by then too ill to attend a Buckingham Palace investiture, and instead arrangements were made for the Cross to be presented to his mother by the Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey - the Colonel had settled at “La Fontaine”, Pontac, Jersey, on his return from India, and died there on 6 April 1920; his son’s V.C. was sold by Christie’s in November 1992, when, happily, it was purchased by his old school, Victoria College, Jersey, where it is displayed on special occasions, and otherwise at the Jersey Museum.