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Name: RUCK, Bernard Edwin GM & Bar, CPM
Nee: son of Edward Albert Ruck b. 18 July 1894 Richmond, Surrey, d. 4 Nov 1966 Mombasa, buried in Kisauni cemetery, Mombasa
Birth Date: 7 Sep 1922 Jinja, Uganda
Death Date: June 1994 Kikambala, Mombasa
First Date: 1922
Last Date: 1994
Profession: Joined Kenya Police in 1942 as an Assistant Inspector and moved through the ranks, attaining the rank of Assistant Commissioner in 1960
Area: Nyeri, Nairobi
Married: In Nyeri 20 Nov 1943 Britta Elizabeth Rundgren b, 11 Dec 1920 Nyeri, d. 13 Mar 2010 Mombasa (dau of Ture Waldemar Rundgren, coffee farmer at Makuyu)
Children: Vanessa (Fleming) (15.2.1944 Kenya); Peter (16.61947 Kenya); Suzanne (Carruthers) (29.8.1948 Kenya)
Book Reference: Habari 27, Colonial, EA & Rhodesia
School: Duke of York School, Nairobi. Colonial - Royal Gram. Sch., High Wycombe
General Information:
Habari 27 - 'From 1953 until his retirement in 1963/4 he served with great distinction in Special Branch and was awarded a George Medal and Bar in 1955 while Provincial SB Officer at Nyeri. Those awards were in recognition of the leading role he played in negotiating the surrender of Mau Mau forest gangs. He later became Provincial Special Branch Officer Nyanza and was in charge of SB Nairobi area before moving to SB Headquarters in 1960.
Bernard Ruck was without doubt an outstanding Special Branch Officer and an example to many who had the good fortune to serve under him. He was an extremely popular officer and his recent death at the Kenya Coast, to which he had retired, has shocked his former colleagues. He was a devoted family man ....' from his daughter - Vanessa Fleming ... 'sent to England at a very early age to be educated. On returning to Uganda he applied to join the Uganda Police in January 1940 but was advised to apply to the Kenya Police for a position as an Assistant Inspector...… '
EA & Rhodesia - 7 October 1954 - The Queen has approved the following immediate awards to 4 officers and 3 inspectors of the Special Branch of the Kenya Police Force for conspicuous gallantry and outstanding service in the negotiations with the Mau Mau terrorists in the Mount Kenya area between February and April this year - The George Medal - Asst. Superintendent Bernard Edward Ruck; aged 32.
1959 Colonial Service Medal.
Retired to Ture Rundgren's house at Kikambala.
Email from Alison Abell to David Reeve 29 Oct 2020 Bernard Ruck ended his career in the KP SB as the Deputy Director Security (DDS) in the "Carpet Shop" SBHQ premises, Nairobi. He, like very many senior SB officers knew just a little bit too much about the incoming Kenya political hierarchy which was to form the newly independent Kenya government. I don't know for certain but have always suspected they were encouraged to quit Kenya by HMG. They could have been an awkward embarrassment had they remained. This resulted in the departure of many at the end of 1963 and in 1964 & 1965. The majority returned to the UK and others went to Australia, South Africa and a few to Southern Rhodesia as it was then.
Ruck remained in Kenya. He owned a wonderful beach property at Kikambala on the north coast. It was a most attractive old Arab style house with very thick whitewashed walls, a 'makuti' (palm frond) thatch roof, set in a grove of coconut palms and overlooking the sea. He had a deep-sea fishing boat as his Kenya born wife, of Scandinavian stock, was a keen & accomplished fisher. Ruck was not the sort of man who would have been happy to sit on his verandah, drinking Tusker, staring out to sea watching it breaking on the reef. He had always been and still was a man of 'get up and go'. Now the huge Swiss-owned sisal estate at Vipingo was close by and he knew socially many of the Swiss senior employees. Eventually he was employed as Personnel Manager for the huge number, many hundreds, of African employees. Interestingly many of these Africans were Makonde from Mozambique who are famous for their wonderful wooden carvings. After he had been employed at the Vipingo Sisal Estate for a couple of years the Swiss General manager went on overseas long leave. Ruck was appointed temporary G.M. and made such an excellent job of it that he was confirmed in that post. Under his energetic management the production of sisal increased and he successfully introduced large herds of beef cattle.
Email from Alison Abell to David Reeve 29 Oct 2020 Bernard Ruck ended his career in the KP SB as the Deputy Director Security (DDS) in the "Carpet Shop" SBHQ premises, Nairobi. He, like very many senior SB officers knew just a little bit too much about the incoming Kenya political hierarchy which was to form the newly independent Kenya government. I don't know for certain but have always suspected they were encouraged to quit Kenya by HMG. They could have been an awkward embarrassment had they remained. This resulted in the departure of many at the end of 1963 and in 1964 & 1965. The majority returned to the UK and others went to Australia, South Africa and a few to Southern Rhodesia as it was then.
Ruck remained in Kenya. He owned a wonderful beach property at Kikambala on the north coast. It was a most attractive old Arab style house with very thick whitewashed walls, a 'makuti' (palm frond) thatch roof, set in a grove of coconut palms and overlooking the sea. He had a deep-sea fishing boat as his Kenya born wife, of Scandinavian stock, was a keen & accomplished fisher. Ruck was not the sort of man who would have been happy to sit on his verandah, drinking Tusker, staring out to sea watching it breaking on the reef. He had always been and still was a man of 'get up and go'. Now the huge Swiss-owned sisal estate at Vipingo was close by and he knew socially many of the Swiss senior employees. Eventually he was employed as Personnel Manager for the huge number, many hundreds, of African employees. Interestingly many of these Africans were Makonde from Mozambique who are famous for their wonderful wooden carvings. After he had been employed at the Vipingo Sisal Estate for a couple of years the Swiss General manager went on overseas long leave. Ruck was appointed temporary G.M. and made such an excellent job of it that he was confirmed in that post. Under his energetic management the production of sisal increased and he successfully introduced large herds of beef cattle.