Donald Bruce, Baron Bruce of Donington

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Donald William Trevor Bruce, Baron Bruce of Donington (3 October 191218 April 2005) was a British soldier, businessman and politician.

The son of William Trevor Bruce war born in Norbury, South London. He was educated in Donington Grammar School, in Donington and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1936. 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, serving in the anti-aircraft defence of London before joining General Eisenhower's staff as an Intelligence Officer in the preparations for D-Day for which he won a mention in dispatches.

From 1945 to 1950 he was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth North. During the same time Bruce was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan. 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 Tilley 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 the County of Hertfordshire.

In 1976, he was appointed to the European Parliament, but resigned in 1979.

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

[edit] Works

  • The State of the Nation, (1997)

[edit] References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Milbourne James
Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North
19451950
Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)