Lord elgin biography canada

BRUCE, JAMES, 8th Earl of ELGIN and 12th Earl of KINCARDINE, colonial administrator; b. 20 July 1811 in London, England, second son of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine, the “saviour” of the “Elgin Marbles,” and of Elizabeth Oswald; d. 20 Nov.

1863 at Dharmsala, India.

James Bruce, as a younger son until 1840, had to fit himself for work, and the career he actually followed owed much of its success to his education and to his early preparation for an occupation.

He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and became one of a brilliant group of Eton and Christ Church graduates, many of whom were later associated in politics and the colonial service.

Bruce studied intensively, so much so that he injured his health and had to forego a double first for a mere first.

Nevertheless he left Oxford not only widely read in classics but having “mastered” on his own, so his brother recorded, the philosophy of Samu