| Obituary: Major Bruce Shand |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Monday, 12 June 2006 | |
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Page 1 of 5  Bruce Shand was born on January 22nd 1917. By the age of three he was an orphan in all-but-name, deserted by his parents.His only source of love and support was his grandmother, who stepped in to take over the role so shamelessly sidetracked by her son and daughter-in-law. Within a few years, though, Bruce was to suffer the fate of many children born to upper class families when he was dispatched to the first of several boarding schools. However, his grandmother refused to allow him to follow in his father Philip's footsteps by entering Eton College. Despite the Windsor-based College having educated several generations of Kings, Princes and future Prime Ministers, Eton had, in the eyes of Bruce's grandmother, turned her son into the adult who had so cruelly turned his back on his own child. 
Having left the prestigious Rugby School, Bruce Shand embarked upon an army career, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the 12th Royal Lancers. He was to prove a brave and heroic soldier, decorated with the Military Cross not once but twice, an achievement which didn't go un-noticed by the man voted the greatest Briton of all time, wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who told Shand: "You're a young man {to have won two medals}. How splendid." |
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