Donald Bruce, Baron Bruce of Donington explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Bruce of Donington
Office:Member of Parliament
for Portsmouth North
Term Start:6 July 1945
Term End:3 February 1950
Predecessor:William James
Successor:Constituency abolished
Office1:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start1:20 January 1975
Term End1:18 April 2005
Life peerage
Birth Name:Donald William Trevor Bruce
Birth Date:1912 10, df=y
Birth Place:Norbury, London, England
Nationality:British
Party:Labour Party
Spouse:
    Children:4 (by Butcher)
    Education:Donington Grammar School
    Profession:Business
    Rank:Major
    Unit:Royal Corps of Signals

    Donald William Trevor Bruce, Baron Bruce of Donington (3 October 1912 – 18 April 2005) was a British soldier, businessman and Labour politician.

    Early life

    Bruce was born in Norbury, South London, the son of insurance broker[1] William Trevor Bruce. He was educated at Donington Grammar School in Donington, Lincolnshire and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1936.

    Military career

    Bruce served in the Territorial Army from 1931 to 1935, later in World War II, in the Royal Signals, where he reached the rank of Major in 1942,[2] serving in the anti-aircraft defence of London before joining Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff as an Intelligence Officer in the preparations for D-Day for which he won a mention in dispatches.

    Parliamentary career

    From 1945 to 1950 Bruce was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth North.[3] During the same time he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan, and compiled many notes and documents with the aim of writing a biography of Bevan, a task later taken up with the assistance of Bruce's papers by Michael Foot.[4]

    When Portsmouth North was abolished in 1950, Bruce stood in the successor seat of Portsmouth West, but was narrowly beaten by the Conservative Terence Clarke.

    After Parliament

    He also set up his own accountancy firm and ran it until 1977 when it merged with Halpern and Woolf which itself merged with Casson Beckman merging finally with Baker Tilly for whom Bruce still worked in his eighties as a consultant.

    On 20 January 1975, he was created a life peer as Baron Bruce of Donington, of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. In 1976, he was appointed to the European Parliament, but resigned in 1979.

    Family

    Lord Bruce of Donington was married twice, firstly to Joan Letitia Butcher in 1939, and after their divorce in 1980, secondly to Cyrena Heard (née Shaw) in 1981. He had four children by his first wife, one son and three daughters (two of whom predeceased him).

    Bibliography

    References

    Notes and References

    1. Who's who of British Members of Parliament Vol. IV- 1945-1979, Harvester Press, 1981, p. 46
    2. Web site: Lord Bruce of Donington. The Independent. 4 January 2017. 20 April 2005.
    3. Web site: Lord Bruce of Donington. The Guardian. 4 January 2017. 19 April 2005.
    4. Book: Foot, Michael . Michael Foot . Aneurin Bevan 1897–1945 . 2nd . 1975 . Paladin . St Albans . 0-586-08194-1 . 9.