# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bruce, Henry William

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​BRUCE. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 21; h-p., 23.)
Henry William Bruce, born 2 Feb. 1792, is third and only surviving son of the late Rev. Sir Henry Hervey Aston Bruce, Bart., by Letitia, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Henry Barnard, granddaughter of Wm. Barnard, Bishop of Derry, and niece of Thos. Barnard, Bishop of Limerick. He is uncle of the present Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, Bart.
This officer entered the Navy, towards the close of 1803, as a Boy, on board the Euryalus 36, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, and, on 21 Oct. 1805, was present, as Midshipman, at the battle of Trafalgar. In 1806 he joined the Ajax 74, commanded by the same officer, and, on her destruction by fire off the Dardanells, 14 Feb. 1807, became attached to the Endymion 40, Capt. Hon. Thos. Bladen Capel, part of Sir John Thos. Duckworth’s force at the passage of those straits. After further assisting at the embarkation of Sir John Moore’s army at Corunna in Jan. 1809, Mr. Bruce rejoined Capt. Blackwood in the Warspite 74, stationed in the North Sea, and, on 5 Jan. 1810, he was promoted, from the Bellona 74, Capt. John Erskine Douglas, into the Prospero sloop, Capt. John Hardy Godby, from which he was, however, removed, on 17 of the same month, to the Belvidera 36, Capt. Rich. Byron. While in that ship he in part commanded her boats, in conjunction with those of the Nemesis 28, at the very gallant capture, off the coast of Norway, of 2 Danish gun-vessels, the Bolder and Thor, of 8 guns and 45 men each, and destruction of a third, 23 July, 1810 – obtained the official notice of his Captain for his skilful management of the Belvidera’s main-deck stem-chasers, when she ably escaped, after a long running fight, and a loss of 2 men killed and 22 wounded, from a powerful American squadron under Commodore Rodgers, 23 June, 1812, on which occasion he was himself slightly wounded – again served in the boats, with those of a squadron under Lieut. Kelly Nazer, at the boarding and capture, on 8 Feb. 1813, after a most obstinate resistance, of the American letter-of-marque lottery, of six 12-pounder carronades and 28 men, an exploit which was acknowledged by the especial thanks of the Commander-in-Chief – and subsequently aided in taking and destroying the privateers Bunker’s Hill of 7 guns and 72 men, and Mars of 15 guns and 70 men. Capt. Bruce, who was advanced to the command of the Manly brig, 27 May, 1814, next, in Aug. of that year, accompanied Rear-Admiral Cockburn up the Patuxent as far as Nottingham, and, on the return of the British army from Washington, there hoisted the flag of that gallant officer, whose acknowledgments for his services he had the honour, with others, to receive. In Sept. following, the Manly was employed up the Patapsto river during the advance of Major-General Ross on Baltimore. We soon afterwards find Capt. Bruce returning to England with despatches in the Rover sloop, and, until paid off in Sept. 1815, successively employed in escorting the outward-bound East India trade to the southward of the equator, in convoying home a fleet of merchantmen from Barbadoes, and cruizing off Dieppe for the purpose of intercepting Napoleon Buonaparte, should occasion offer. On 16 March, 1821, he was appointed to the Sappho sloop, and, being the Senior Commander on the Cork station at the time of George the Fourth’s visit to Ireland, was promoted to Post-rank, by commission dated 16 Nov. in the same year. He subsequently, from 4 Oct. 1823, until 3 April, 1824, officiated as Flag-Captain, in the Britannia 120, to the Hon. Sir Alex. Inglis Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth; commanded the Imogene 26, on the South American station, from 7 June, 1836, until paid off at the close of 1839; and, on 1 Feb. 1842, was selected by his brother-in-law. Sir Thos. John Cochrane, to be his Flag-Captain in the Agincourt 72, on the East India station. He has been on half-pay since May, 1845.
Capt. Bruce married, first, 9 Feb. 1822, Jane, second daughter of Admiral Hon. Sir Alex. Inglis Cochrane, sister of Rear-Admiral Sir Thos. John Cochrane, and sister-in-law of Rear-Admiral Sir Edw. Thos. Trowbridge, Bart., by whom, who died 22 June, 1830, he has issue two sons and two daughters. He espoused, secondly, 13 March, 1832, Mary Minchin, youngest daughter of the late Col. Geo. Dalrymple, and by that lady he also has issue. Agent – John P. Muspratt.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1342.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1943.