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Name: BRUCE, Alexander, Hon.
Nee: 3rd son of 9th Earl of Elgin, Viceroy of India
Birth Date: 29 July 1884 Dunfermline
Death Date: 1 Oct 1917 Kalobata, Turkana. 1920 buried near Kolosia, Naivasha Province
First Date: 1908
Last Date: 1917
Profession: Provincial Administration
Area: 1914 Turkana, HBEA 1912 ADC, Sankuri
Book Reference: Gazette, Burke, Leader14, Web, Gillett, HBEA, Moyse
School: Balliol College Oxford
General Information:
Gazette - 16/2/16 - Alexander Bruce - appt. Asst. DC N. Kavirondo
Burke - DC Br. E. Africa; died in E. Africa Oct 1917
Gazette 31/10/1917 - Obituary - His Excellency deeply regrets to announce the death of the Hon. Alexander Bruce District Commissioner, Turkana at Kalobata on the 1st Inst as the result of a gunshot accident. Mr Bruce entered the Protectorate service on 4/9/1908 and was promoted to be a District Commissioner on 8/8/1915. In him the Administration loses one of its most capable and efficient officers with a special aptitude for dealing with the less sophisticated natives of remote districts. Though somewhat reserved in character his sterling qualities were recognized and appreciated by a large circle of friends both in and out of the service.
Web Article - The Turkana Patrol Reconsidered - In 1912 the Honourable Alexander Bruce became the new district commissioner in southern Turkana that coincided with heavy Turkana raids against the Samburu led by a war leader, M. Ebei. Bruce launched punitive expeditions to punish him that appears to have been personally motivated. He failed to capture Ebei who slipped away to Mt. Labur at the end of 1913, but Bruce had lost most of the good-will the British had managed to cultivate among the southern Turkana.