Clarence Bruce, 3rd Baron Aberdare

Who was Clarence Bruce, 3rd Baron Aberdare?

Clarence Napier Bruce, 3rd Baron Aberdare, GBE, styled The Honourable from 1895 to 1929, was a British military officer, cricketer, tennis player, and also an excellent golfer. He was the second son of Henry Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare.

Bruce received his education at Twyford School, Winchester College and at New College, Oxford, and was admitted as a barrister of the Inner Temple; however, when World War I broke out, he decided to enter the British Army. His elder brother was killed in action in 1914, making him heir apparent to his father's barony.

Lord Aberdare, who would rise to the substantive rank of captain in World War I, served variously in the Glamorgan Yeomanry, the 2nd Life Guards, the headquarters of the 61st Division and in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment; in 1919, immediately after the armistice, he was promoted to captain. He inherited the barony in 1929. He served as the honorary colonel of the 77 Heavy AA Brigade, RA from 1930 to 1952; during this period, he additionally served as major of the 11th Battalion, Surrey Home Guards during World War II. Between the two world wars, he was an active tennis player. Bruce was U.S.A. Amateur Champion in 1930 and of the British Isles in 1932 and 1938. He played eighteen times for Great Britain in the Bathurst Cup and six times won the Coupe de Paris. He carried off the M.C.C. Gold Prize on five occasions and nine times won the Silver Prize.