Frederick Wright-Bruce

Who was Frederick Wright-Bruce?

Sir Frederick Wright-Bruce, GCB was a British diplomat.

Frederick Bruce was the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and his second wife Elizabeth, youngest daughter of James Townshend Oswald of Dunnikier, Fife. He was born at Bromhall, Fife, on 14 April 1814. On 9 February 1842 he was attached to Lord Ashburton's mission to Washington, returning to England with his lordship in September of that year.

On 9 February 1844 he was appointed colonial secretary at Hongkong, which place he held until 1846, when on 27 June he became lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland. His next change was to Sucre, with the appointment of consul-general in the republic of Bolivia on 23 July 1847, and on 14 April 1848 he was accredited as chargé d'affaires. He was named chargé d'affaires to the Oriental republic of the Uruguay on 29 August 1851, and on 3 August 1853 became agent and consul-general in Egypt in the place of the Hon. C. A. Murray.

On his brother, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, being appointed ambassador extraordinary to China, he accompanied him as principal secretary in April 1857. He brought home the treaty with China signed at Tientsin on 26 June 1858 and was made a C.B. on 28 September.