Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/387

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Bruce
325
Bruce

life he gave much time to the better organisation of education in Wales. He was chairman of the departmental committee appointed in 1880 to inquire into intermediate and higher education in Wales and Monmouth. It was on the report of that committee that the Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 was founded. He became president of the University College at Cardiff on its foundation in 1883, and delivered the inaugural address there on 24 Oct. 1883, urging most strongly that the educational edifice in the principality should be crowned by the creation of a university of Wales. He presided in the next few years at gathering after gathering called to further this object, and when the charter had been at last obtained in 1894 he, as 'commander-in-chief of the Welsh educational army,' was naturally elected by a unanimous vote the first chancellor of the new institution, 25 Jan. 1895 (cf. Address before the Welsh National Society of Liverpool, by Professor Viriamu Jones, Vice-Chancellor of the University of iVales, Cardiff, 1896).

Lord Aberdare had been made a G.C.B. on 7 Jan. 1885, and he adhered to Mr. Gladstone, to whom he was passionately loyal, when he adopted home rule in 1886, In 1893 he accepted his old chief's invitation to preside over the commission on the aged poor, which occupied hira till near his death, which took place at 39 Prince's Gardens, London, on 25 Feb. 1895. He was buried at Mountain Ash, South Wales.

Aberdare had four children by his first wife, of whom three survived him — one 8on, Henry Campbell Bruce, his successor in the peerage, and two daughters. By his second wife, who died on 27 April 1897, he left two sons and six daughters.

Active and athletic, Bruce was devoted to field-sports, and owed to them more than one serious accident. When in the country Be was fond of long rides among the hills. Well suited to be a great owner of coal property, he maintained excellent personal relations with his colliers. He was the most clubable of men. He was one of the first members of the Cosmopolitan Club. He was one of the twelve who formed the Breakfast Club in the spring of 1866, and attended a meeting of that society only nine days before his death. He was long a member, and latterly a trustee, of the Athenfeum, and he was elected at Grillions in 1868.

Possessing a retentive memory, he knew by heart much poetry. To Dryden he was deeply attached, and he had a passion for military history. In 1864 he edited, with great diligence and care, the 'Life' of his father-in-law. Sir William Napier. In 1894 he wrote an introductory notice to the ' Early Adventures' of his friend. Sir Austin Henry Layard [q.v. Suppl.] They had known each other intimately from 1848 onwards.

A statue of Aberdare has been erected at Cardiff. His best literary memorial is the fine poem 'On a Birthday,' by his friend Sir Lewis Morris, which was written to commemorate Aberdare's seventieth birthday (Morris, Collected Works, p. 272).

[Private information; Hansard; publications quoted; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, i. and viii.]

M. G. D.

BRUCE, JOHN COLLINGWOOD (1805–1892), antiquary, born at Albion Place, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1805, was the eldest son of John Bruce of Newcastle. He was educated at the Percy Street Academy, a well-known school in Newcastle kept by his father, and afterwards at Mill Hill School, Middlesex. He entered Glasgow University in 1821, graduated M.A. in 1826, and became hon. LL.D. in 1853. In early life he studied for the presbyterian ministry, but never sought a 'call' from any congregation. In 1831 he began to assist in the management of his father's school, of which he became sole proprietor in 1834, when his father died, lie retired from the school, after a successful career, in 1863.

Bruce was an enthusiastic antiquary, and his work, though hardly that of a discoverer, was of a useful and stimulating kind. His best known books are 'The Roman Wall,' published in 1851, and 'The Wallet Book [in later editions 'The Handbook'] of the Roman Wall,' published in 1863. He acted as editor, from 1870 to 1875, of the 'Lapidarium Septentrionale,' issued by the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries. During forty years Bruce annually visited various parts of the Wall, and organised 'pilgrimages' thither in 1851 and 1886. He was aided in his researches by his friend John Clayton, F.S.A. Bruce was a secretary and vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle (elected 1846); fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London (elected 1852); and corresponding member of the Royal Archæological Institute of Rome. He was also chairman of the Royal Infirmary, Newcastle, and organised a choir to visit its wards.

Bruce died, after a short illness, at his residence in Newcastle on 5 April 1892, and was buried in the old cemetery, Jesmond. Some of his maps and drawings were presented by his son in 1893 to the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries. A portrait of Bruce from a photograph is prefixed to the 'Hand-