Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Cumming-Bruce 
1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

He seems a charming chap; perhaps a slightly unorthodox military figure with his rather old-fashioned curly moustache, white framed horn-rimmed spectacles and slight stoop … I hope to God he knows his job.

(Martin Lindsay, So Few Got Through, 12)

Born on 29 May 1910 in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, Henry Charles Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce was the heir to Baron Thurlow. He attended Eton College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst before taking a commission with the Seaforth Highlanders in 1930. In the mid 30s, he served as aide-de-camp to the British High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan and held posts in the Middle East during the early phase of the Second World War.

In early 1941, he joined the 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders as a company commander during the campaign in Eritrea. After further service in North Africa, in June 1943, he became brigade major for the 152nd Infantry Brigade. Following staff and instructional duties after the 51st Division returned to the United Kingdom, Cumming-Bruce transferred to the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders just before the invasion of France in June 1944. As second-in-command, he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel W.A. Stevenson when he was wounded on 11 July during the failed attack on Colombelles.

New second-in-command Major Martin Lindsay described arriving to a battalion demoralized by heavy losses in recent futile fighting but noticed how Cumming-Bruce worked to earn respect from all ranks. Despite his rank and aristocratic lineage, the CO insisted that Lindsay call him Harry. At the same time, Lindsay recorded, “Harry says that his ambition is to loot Goering’s house at Karenhalle, as his family have done the two biggest pieces of looting in history, his great-great-grandfather, Elgin, the marbles named after him, and his great-grandfather, ably assisted by his grandfather, the Pekin Summer Palace.”

Lindsay observed a slight lax discipline and formality in the battalion, writing, “Harry is too kind. On the other hand, everybody loves him so much that they try desperately hard whenever any test comes, so he produces good results just the same.” In October, he recorded again, “Harry is a unique character. I have never met a C.O. who is less feared yet so much respected and adored, nor one for whom people would go to such pains to produce good results.”

Having filled in as acting brigadier on several occasions, Cumming-Bruce was promoted to acting brigadier of the 44th Lowland Brigade, 15th Scottish Division on 27 November 1944. Lindsay, who frequently expressed concerns about Harry’s safety in his diary, wrote:

Everybody is terribly sorry that Harry is leaving, and I am very sad that our happy little family at Battalion H.Q. is being broken up. Anyway, it means that he is ho longer so likely to become a casualty. During battle, when I have been back at rear H.Q. and Harry up with the companies, I have dreaded that a voice would come on the air on a forward set and say, “The Colonel has been hit.”

Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Grant-Peterkin transferred from 15th Scottish Reconnaissance Regiment to take command of the 1st Gordons.

For his brigade leadership, Cumming-Bruce earned a D.S.O. and a Bar at the Siegfried Line: “Throughout the operations commencing on 8 February and lasting to date he has commanded his Brigade with great courage, determination, and ability. He has always been an example and a steadying influence to his men.”

Cumming-Bruce succeeded his father as 7th Baron Thurlow in 1952. He continued a postwar British Army career rising to major-general in 1959 and was Officer Commanding for Malta and Libya until 1963. He retired the next year and died in London on 29 May 1971, his sixty-first birthday.