James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin

Who was James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin?

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, KT, GCB, PC, was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He was the Governor General of the Province of Canada, a High Commissioner in charge of opening trades with China and Japan, and Viceroy of India. As British High Commissioner in China during the Second Opium War, in 1860 he ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in retaliation for the imprisonment, torture, and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners.