Rank: Private 3215592 Regiment: 1st Depot Bn. (Alberta)., Canadian Infantry Died: 31/10/1918 Age: 33y Parish: Budleigh Salterton Local Memorials: Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, St Peter's Church War Memorial Other Memorial: Calgary Union Cemetery [Google] PDF Download: BRUCE Francis Gore
Francis Bruce was born about 1885, probably in South Africa where his father, Captain Francis William Bruce, was serving at Mafeking.
He was living in England up to 1903 when he went to Canada and joined the 1st Depot Battalion. (Alberta) of the Canadian infantry as a Private. It seems he went to Alaska. It is not clear what he did during the war but he was admitted to the Sarcee Hospital with influenza and died there of pneumonia.
In the Fairlynch Museum you can see the document that the hospital sent to his mother in Budleigh Salterton. His parents, Captain Francis William Bruce and Mary Sarah Caroline (nee Bean) came to Budleigh and lived at Setlagoli, Clinton Terrace in 1913 or 1914 and Setlagoli, Moor Lane from 1923, named after where Captain Bruce had served in South Africa.
They both died in the late 1920s and are buried in St Peter’s Cemetery, Moor Lane, but there is no gravestone. Captain Bruce was born in India. He is remembered on the War Memorial and the brass plaque in St Peter’s Church.
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