The Earl of Elgin | |
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![]() Victor Bruce, c. 1897 | |
Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
In office 10 December 1905 – 12 April 1908 | |
Monarch | Edward VII |
Prime Minister | Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
Preceded by | Alfred Lyttelton |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Crewe |
Viceroy and Governor-General of India | |
In office 11 October 1894 – 6 January 1899 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Preceded by | The Marquess of Lansdowne |
Succeeded by | The Lord Curzon of Kedleston |
Personal details | |
Born | Montreal, Canada East, Province of Canada | 16 May 1849
Died | 18 January 1917 Dunfermline, Fife, United Kingdom | (aged 67)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse | Gertrude Sherbrooke (m. 1913) |
Children | 12, including Edward |
Parent(s) | James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin Lady Mary Louisa Lambton |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, 13th Earl of Kincardine, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC (16 May 1849 – 18 January 1917), known as Lord Bruce until 1863, was a right-wing British Liberal politician who served as Viceroy of India from 1894 to 1899. He was appointed by Prime Minister Arthur Balfour to hold an investigative enquiry into the conduct of the Boer War in 1902 to 1903. The Elgin Commission was the first of its kind in the British Empire, and it travelled to South Africa and took oral evidence from men who had actually fought in the battles. It was the first to value the lives of the dead and to consider the feelings of mourning relatives left behind, and it was the first occasion in the history of the British Army that recognised the testimony of ordinary soldiery as well as that of the officers.[1]