A talented Scottish family

posted by John Winn

Researching for a posting I made in November on the Bateman Champain family I chanced across the Wisden obituary for John Harold Bruce-Lockhart who died in London on June 4th 1956 aged 67. An old boy of Sedbergh School, Bruce-Lockhart went on to be Headmaster of his school from 1937 to 1964. At Cambridge his leg spinners were good enough to take 12 wickets in the 1909 Freshers' Match when his victims included Prince H Naryan stumped Holme b Lockhart in both innings. In their account of Cambridge's 'poor season' Bruce-Lockhart is singled out for his performance to the extent that he is described as carrying the whole team on his shoulders. Gaining his blue at Lord's he took nine wickets in a rain interrupted match.

Bruce-Lockhart played 24 first class matches in all, including two for Scotland. The first of these was against Ireland in 1910 when he took 11 wickets in the match  and the second against an All Indian team at Galashiels the following year when he took six wickets in the tourists' two innings. The rest of his first class games were for his university for whom he took over 100 wickets. Bruce-Lockhart was also an outstanding rugby union player, gaining a blue and two caps at fly half for Scotland. His marriage to Mona Brougham produced four sons, two of whom were talented sportsmen. Logie was capped at rugby by Scotland and Rab played both sports for his country. If that were not enough their uncle, John's brother Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, was a noted rugby player, spy, diplomat and journalist .His son Robin wrote the book, Reilly Ace of Spies.

It would perhaps be inappropriate to divert too far into the Bruce-Lockhart families educational pedigree, suffice to say Logie was appointed head of Gresham's School aged only 34, a post he held for almost thirty years and Rab was head at Loretto School in Edinburgh.

If all this is not enough to justify the title of the posting then here a few more snippets about this remarkable family

John Bruce-Lockhart was a talented artist and a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur

Logie Bruce- Lockhart was a keen fly fisherman and wrote books on his hobby.

Dugald Bruce-Lockhart born Fiji in 1988 is an actor and great grandson of JH Bruce-Lockhart. He trained at RADA then worked at The RSC.

Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, grandson of John Bruce-Lockhart was a Conservative politician and leader of Kent County Council.

Kim Bruce-Lockhart, nephew of Logie, was an outstanding squash player who after Sedbergh School went up to Cambridge where he gained a blue for squash, played a decent standard of cricket, 'a shrewd captain, an erratic spin bowler, and a superb batsman with an impeccable defence and an enthralling array of wristy attacking strokes'* qualities that earned him selection for Surrey II and should, some thought, have gained him a blue.  He captained the first XV at Sedbergh, a team that included Alastair Biggar and John Spencer, and of course the cricket team for which Wisden shows he was outstanding with both bat and ball.  He was no 1 for Scotland at squash for almost ten years until aged 33 he dropped dead from a heart attack while playing a Cumberland Cup game in January 1980,  leaving a wife and young family.

* the quotation is from an address by G.V. Surtees MA Headmaster of John Lyon School, Harrow at a memorial service for Kim held on January 22nd 1980.