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Thomas Bruce, 7th earl of Elgin 11th earl of Kincardine
* July 20 1766
+ Nov 14, 1841, Paris
British diplomatist and art collector, famous for his acquisition of the Greek sculptures now known as the "Elgin Marbles".
Third son of Charles Bruce, the fifth earl (1732-71), he succeeded his brother
William Robert, the 6th earl, th 1771 at the age of five. Entering the army in 1785 and rising later to the rank of major general, Elgin began his diplomatic career in 1790. Envoy at Brussels in 1792 and at Berlin in
1795 during the first phase of the war against revolutionary France, he was appointed envoy extraordinary in Constantinople in 1799, retaining the post until 1803. Detained in France on his way home through the rupture
of the treaty of Amiens, Elgin ddid nor reach England until 1806 and found his reputation under heavy attack. Though serving as a Scottish representative peer between 1790 and 1840, he took little further part in public
life.
Keenly interested in classical art, Elgin secured permission from the Turks after his arrival in Constantinople to record and remive Greek antiquities, fearing their destruction in the ongoing conflict between
the Greeks and the Turks. Between 1802 and 1812 his great collection of sculptures, taken chiefly from Parthenon at Athens, then under Turkish domination, was brought to England. In the violent controversy generated by
the removal, Elgin was denounced as a dishonest and rapacious vandal, notaby by the poet Lord Byron, while the quality of his acquisitions, later regarded as exceptional, was questioned. In 1810 he published a
memorandum defending his actions and judgement. On the recommendation of a parliamentary committee, which also vindicated Elgin's conduct, the "Marbles" were bought by Great Britain in 1816 for £ 35,000
considerably below their cost to Elgin, and deposited in the British Museum, where they remain on view.
James Bruce, 8th earl of Elgin 12 earl of Kincardine
* July 20, 1811 London
+ Nov 20, 1863, Dharmsala, India
British statesman and governor general of British North America in 1847-54 who effected responsible, or cabinet, government in Canada and whose conduct inoffice defined
the role for his successors.
Bruce was elected in the British house of Commons for Southampton as a liberal Tory in 1841, but later that year he inherited hs father's title (Scottish peerage) and left the Commons.
In 1842 he was appointed governor of Jamaica. In 1846 he was named governor general of British North America and given the task of implementing the polica of responsible government recommended by his father-in-Law,
George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham. He worked with the existing administration of the union of Canada East and Canada West until its defeat in 1848 general election, when he supported the next administration's Rebellion
Act (1849), which compensated all Canadians for losses incurred in an 1837 rebellion in Lower Canada. His stand attracted strong Tory opposition; Elgin himself was stoned (though uninjured) by a moband Partliament
buildings were burned.
Elgin maintained good relations with the two subsequent administrations. In 1849 he was created Baron Elgin (United Kingdom peerage) and was made privy councillor. He negotiated the
Reciprocity Treaty (1854) between the Canadian colonies and the U.S. He also worked on the Canadian educational system and abolished segneurial tenure. In 1857-59 snd 1860-61 he served as a special commissioner to
China, and in 1858 he made an official visit to Japan. In England he served as postmaster general (1859.60) in Lord Psalmerton's Cabinet, before undertaking his last post as viceroy of India in 1862.
Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th earl of Elgin
* May 16, 1849, near Montreal
+ Jan. 18, 1917, Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland
British viceroy of India from 1894 to 1899. He was son of the
8th earl and was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. In politics a Liberal of right-wing tendencies. Elgin was first commissioner of works under William Gladstone in 1886. Emulating his father, whom he
succeeded in 1863, he became viceroy of India in 1894. His viceroyalty was a period of economic stringency and Indian unrest, further complicated by frontier wars. Upon relinquishing is appointment and returning to
England in 1899, Elgin was made Knight of Garter. During 1902-03 he acted as chairman of the royal commissionh that investigated the conduct of the South African war. From 1905 until 1908, when he retired from public
life, Elgin served as secretary of state for the colonies in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's administration.
Modest and retiring, disliking the requisite pomp, Elgin was not regarded as a successful or effective
viceroy of India. His tenure of the colonial officesaw generous and much praised settlement between the Boers in South Africa. This was, however, primarily the work of the prime-minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman;
and Elgin had little sympathy for his colleagues' ore radical innovations in colonial government, being particularly opposed to proposals for Indian reform.
Source: © New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol X, pp. 446f.
Bruce (King) of Elgin, Illinois This is "our" Bruce... Bruce "The Boxleitner" of Elgin, Ill...
* May 12, 1950 Elgin, Illinois
+ hopefully never!
What is there to say which you guys don't already know?
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