British soldier
Charles Christian Cameron "Nish" Bruce
,
QGM
(8 August 1956 ? 8 January 2002) was a
British Army
soldier.
[1]
Bruce served with the British Army's
Parachute Regiment
and
Special Air Service
. He deployed during the
Falklands War
and as part of
Operation Banner
to
Northern Ireland
in the early 1980s, where he was awarded the
Queen's Gallantry Medal
.
[2]
In 1998, he published a memoir of his life entitled
Freefall
, under the pseudonym "
Tom Read
".
[3]
After several years of psychiatric illness, Bruce killed himself by leaping without a parachute to his death from an aeroplane during a flight over South-Eastern England.
Early life
[
edit
]
Bruce was born in
Chipping Norton
, in
Oxfordshire
, England, on 8 August 1956. He came from a family with a military tradition, being the middle son of a father who had been a
fighter pilot
with the
Royal Air Force
during the
Second World War
,
[4]
and the paternal grandson of Major
Ewen Cameron Bruce
.
[5]
Military career
[
edit
]
Bruce joined the British Army's
Parachute Regiment
as a
private
in 1973 at the age of 17, and served with the regiment in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s in
Operation Banner
.
[6]
From 1978 he spent four years with the
Red Devils
Display Team, participating in test-jumping, international exhibitions and competitions.
[7]
At the time of his death in 2002, with nearly 30 years in military and civilian
parachuting
, Bruce had logged over 8,500 parachute jumps. His parachute log books show that he learnt his basic parachuting skills at Sibson Airfield, Peterborough from 1974 to 1978 prior to joining The
Red Devils (Parachute Regiment)
Display Team and achieved his D Rating in April 1979).
[8]
Bruce subsequently applied for transfer to the
Special Air Service
and, after passing its aptitude trials, was attached to 22nd Special Air Service Regiment in April 1982, shortly before the
Falklands War
commenced.
[6]
He served with 22 SAS 'B' Squadron, 7 (Air) Troop from 1982 to 1986.
[3]
While with 'B' Squadron 7 Troop, he served with
Alistair Slater
,
Frank Collins
and
Andy McNab
.
[1]
(In a November 2008 interview with
The Daily Telegraph
,
McNab described Bruce as "one of my heroes".)
[9]
In 1982, with other members of 'B' Squadron, 22. SAS, Bruce parachuted into the
South Atlantic Ocean
during the
Falklands War
,
[10]
[11]
and took part in
Operation Mikado
.
[3]
In late 1984 Bruce was involved with British Army counter-terrorist operations against
Provisional Irish Republican Army
units in
Kesh, County Fermanagh
in
Northern Ireland
, for which he was later awarded the
Queen's Gallantry Medal
for "exemplary acts of bravery"
[3]
[12]
[13]
in maintaining the pursuit of an IRA vehicle in a high speed chase while under almost continual fire. Describing Bruce's conduct, military history author Harry McCallion comments:
"One member of the pursuit team recalls the weight of fire that was poured out at them as being like 'a sheet of lead'. Despite the hail of rounds flying around him, Corporal Bruce didn't flinch or hang back for a moment. Instead, he kept his car right up on the tail of the fleeing van, remaining as close as was reasonably possible."
[14]
One of the operations led to the death in action of his Special Air Service comrade Alistair Slater in a
confrontation
with several IRA
volunteers
from the
Provisional IRA Derry Brigade
, including
Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde
and
Kieran Fleming
(whose cousin
William Fleming
was killed in another SAS operation four days later),
[15]
who were also killed in the incident which became known as the
Kesh ambush
(Slater being posthumously awarded the
Military Medal
).
[16]
According to
The Guardian
, Bruce was initially discharged from the SAS in early 1986 for "not being a team player" after a clash with his superiors.
[17]
However, following his award of the
Queen's Gallantry Medal
in late 1986 Bruce was invited to re-join the Regiment and from 1987 to 1988 he was attached to the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment's 'G' Squadron, 24 (Air) Troop.
[18]
Later life
[
edit
]
After leaving the British Army in 1988 with the rank of sergeant, Bruce worked in a private security capacity for the comedian
Jim Davidson
,
[19]
[20]
before taking the role of second in command of an undercover operation codenamed
Project Lock
, a
WWF
sponsored anti-poaching operation in Southern Africa (1988?1990) led by SAS Founder
David Stirling
and SAS Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Crooke.
[21]
[22]
[23]
Operation Lock's primary purpose in Southern Africa was to track down dealers in
rhino
horn and ivory. Linked to this was identifying their methods for illegal export, pinning corruption against those in high places who colluded with the dealers, and helping with the training and equipping of anti-poaching teams for endangered species in general and rhino in particular.
[24]
Following Operation Lock, for two years Bruce worked in Washington, D.C. as bodyguard for Lebanese billionaire and former Prime Minister of Lebanon
Saad Hariri
.
[3]
Bruce was an experienced pilot. He held South African, American and British
pilot licences
as well as a
commercial pilot licence
, which enabled him to fly both single-engine
fixed wing aircraft
and
helicopters
. In July 1992 he piloted his single-engine
Cessna 172
Skyhawk from Washington, D.C., across the Atlantic Ocean via
Greenland
and
Iceland
back to the UK.
[3]
In the early 1990s Bruce started the 'Skydive From Space' project, to skydive from the edge of space from 130,000 feet and break the highest altitude freefall record previously set by
Joe Kittinger
in the 1960s.
[3]
He trained with Loel Guinness' High Adventure Company and Kittinger.
[25]
The project was partially backed and funded by
NASA
. As a part of it Bruce,
Harry Taylor
and scientist and astronaut
Karl Gordon Henize
, with an ascent team, climbed the North Ridge Route of
Mount Everest
in late 1993 to test a NASA meter called a "tissue equivalent proportional counter" (TEPC) at different altitudes (17,000 ft, 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft), the device measuring the effects upon the human body of radiation at altitude, which would be factored in for consideration of space missions of a longer duration.
[3]
The expedition was abandoned after the death of Karl Henize from
high altitude pulmonary edema
on 5 October 1993.
[3]
[26]
[27]
Although the expedition was cut short, NASA received the information it had been sent out to acquire from the meter's readings logged during the ascent.
[28]
In February 1994 Bruce had a
nervous breakdown
whilst living in
Chamonix
, France,
[3]
[29]
where he without warning attempted to murder his girlfriend with a pair of scissors, stabbing her several times before being dragged off her by another man present. He was confined shortly afterwards by the local authorities to a French psychiatric hospital.
[6]
The completion of the 'Skydive from Space' project was abandoned in consequence, and he began receiving psychiatric medical treatment.
[3]
Bruce came to public prominence in 1998 when his memoir entitled
Freefall
was published by
Little, Brown Book Group
,
[3]
[30]
under the pseudonym 'Tom Read',
ghost written
by
Michael Robotham
.
[6]
The book detailed Bruce's military career, the 'Skydive From Space' project, the ascent of Mount Everest, and his subsequent descent into mental illness and psychological recovery.
Freefall
was described by
Andy McNab
, one of his comrades in the British Army, as "This is
Bravo Two Zero
meets
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
. Read's story had me on the edge of my seat ? and it also made me cry". An updated paperback and kindle edition of
Freefall
was published on 5 August 2021.
[31]
Death
[
edit
]
Despite periods of psychological recovery, after eight years of recurring mental illness,
[32]
and being intermittently
sectioned in mental hospitals
, Bruce killed himself on 8 January 2002 by deliberately jumping, without a parachute, out of a private
Cessna 172
light aircraft in which he was a passenger during a flight over the South-East of England, plunging 5,000 feet (1,520 m) to his death.
[33]
His body was subsequently found on a football pitch at the village of
Fyfield
in
Oxfordshire
. He was 45 years old.
[34]
His military career and the manner of his death resulted in extensive media coverage of the incident.
[35]
[36]
[37]
There has been conjecture that Bruce's psychological breakdown was attributable to
post-traumatic stress disorder
incurred from his military career.
[38]
A report in
The Guardian
in 2002 discussed "post-career anticlimax" and stated that "the problem of post-discharge mental collapse and suicide among former special soldiers is increasingly being recognised". Bruce's friend Mark Lucas was quoted as having made this comment:
[17]
"We shouldn't be surprised by what happens when men experience what these men have experienced ... They are trained to survive in a landscape in which the dividing line between life and death is extremely thin."
On 16 January 2002, Bruce was cremated at Banbury Crematorium in
Oxfordshire
; his ashes were subsequently scattered by his son and former colleagues during a memorial skydive in April 2002 over
Northamptonshire
from
Hinton Skydiving Centre
.
[39]
In December 2021, a memorial plaque in memory of Bruce was added to the Goose Green Memorial Bench within
Aldershot Military Cemetery
, Surrey, England.
Quotations
[
edit
]
- "Nothing else comes close to those first few seconds after leaving the plane, because once you take that last step there is no going back. A racing driver or a skier or climber can pull over and stop, have a rest, but with parachuting, once you cross that threshold, you have to see it through."
[40]
Publications
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
McNab, Andy
(1996).
Immediate Action
. Corgi Adult. pp. 175?176.
ISBN
0-552-14276-X
.
- ^
Medals of Britain ? Orders, Decorations and Medals
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Read, Tom.
Freefall
(Little Brown, Edition 1, 1998), pp. 112?23, 144?53, 162?63, 169?88, 190?201, 216, 224?35, 265, 284?86, 342, front/back cover quotations;
ISBN
0-316-64303-3
.
- ^
Caygill, Peter. Spitfire Mark V in Action: 'RAF Operations in Northern Europe'. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 2001. pp.42?3 & 258.
- ^
Townend, Peter. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edition. 3 volumes. London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965?1972.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Addley, Esther.
"The suicide of an ex-SAS man | the Guardian | guardian.co.uk"
.
TheGuardian.com
.
Archived
from the original on 18 January 2017
. Retrieved
16 December
2016
.
"The Suicide of an Ex-SAS Man, Into the Abyss", 11 January 2002,
The Guardian
(paragraphs 7, 8)
- ^
"Nish Bruce"
. Archived from
the original
on 23 March 2013.
- ^
Freefall
, Tom Read, Published 1998
ISBN
0316848786
; p. 61-72
- ^
McNab, Andy.
"Andy McNab on the battle that never ends"
.
Archived
from the original on 25 April 2015
. Retrieved
26 May
2015
.
,
The Daily Telegraph
, "Andy McNab on the battle that never ends", 22 November 2008
- ^
Sengupta, Kim.
"Falklands ceremony is too late for 'abandoned' veterans - This Britain - UK - the Independent"
.
Independent.co.uk
. Archived from
the original
on 25 September 2015
. Retrieved
6 September
2017
.
"The Falklands Ceremony is too late for 'abandoned' Veterans", 18 June 2007,
The Independent
- ^
Geddes, John.
Highway to Hell (An SAS Veteran's Bloody Account on the Private Army in Iraq)
. Arrow Books, Random House: 2007, p. 180;
ISBN
9780099499466
.
- ^
McNab, Andy.
Seven Troop
(2008), pp. 184?87;
ISBN
9780552158664
- ^
[1]
QGM citation for Bruce in Third Supplement To
The London Gazette
of Monday 10 November 1986
- ^
McCallion, Harry. Undercover War: 'Britain's Special Forces and Their Secret Battle Against the IRA'. John Blake Publishing, 2020;
ISBN
9781789462852
; p.105-108
- ^
"CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths"
.
cain.ulster.ac.uk
.
- ^
"Medal award for Al Slater (posthumous)"
.
- ^
a
b
"Into the Abyss"
.
The Guardian
. 11 January 2002
. Retrieved
25 August
2020
.
- ^
Freefall
, Tom Read, Published 1998
ISBN
0316848786
; p. 304-306
- ^
Davidson, Jim.
The Full Monty, The Autobiography of Jim Davidson
(1993), pp. 194?97;
ISBN
0-7515-0737-7
- ^
Davidson, Jim.
Close to the Edge, The Autobiography of Jim Davidson
(2002), Afterward Chapter;
ISBN
0091881048
- ^
Hanks, John.
Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching
(2015), p.64;
ISBN
9781770227293
- ^
"Saving the World's Wildlife: WWF's First Fifty Years - Reviews - the Ecologist"
. 14 April 2011.
Archived
from the original on 12 October 2013
. Retrieved
3 February
2013
.
,
The WWF ? The First 50 Years
(paragraph 6)
- ^
Potgieter, Det Wet.
Contraband: South Africa and the International Trade in Ivory and Rhino Horn
, p. 145 (Publisher: Queillerie, 1995);
ISBN
9781874901488
- ^
Hanks, John.
Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching
(2015), p.193;
ISBN
9781770227293
- ^
Freefall
, Tom Read, Published 1998
ISBN
0316848786
; p. 25, 186-188, 216
- ^
"Obituary: Karl Henize"
.
Independent.co.uk
. 22 October 2011.
Archived
from the original on 24 February 2017
. Retrieved
31 January
2017
.
,
The Independent
report on the death of Karl Heinze, 23 October 1993
- ^
NASA: Press Release: Former Astronaut Karl Henize dies on Mt. Everest Expedition
Archived
4 March 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
, 8 October 1993
- ^
"Kalpa Group website"
. Archived from
the original
on 11 January 2014.
- ^
Andy McNab's News. Remembering Nish's Dream
Archived
23 March 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
, greymansland.com
- ^
? Read, Tom
Freefall
(1998)
Archived
26 August 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Freefall
, Tom Read, 2021 Edition
ISBN
9780751572353
- ^
[2]
Challand, Christine.
The Mirror
, "Nish believed I was an Undercover IRA agent. Police had to send in a SWAT team"], 26 January 2002.
- ^
[3]
, Allison, Rebecca.
The Guardian
, "Suicide Verdict ? Depressed pilot leapt to death" (21 June 2002)
- ^
"SAS Soldier dies in plane plunge"
,
CNN World News
, 10 January 2002.
- ^
"Falkland veterans claim suicide toll"
. 13 January 2002.
Archived
from the original on 18 August 2017
. Retrieved
14 January
2017
.
BBC News
, "Falklands veterans claim suicide toll", 13 January 2002.
- ^
Dyer, Clare.
"The Forgotten Army"
Archived
11 August 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
.
The Guardian
, 16 January 2002.
- ^
Kennedy, Michael.
Soldier 'I' ? The Story of an SAS Hero
(2011), p. 350. Osprey Publishing;
ISBN
9781849086509
- ^
Banks, Tony.
Storming the Falklands, My War and After
(2012). Chapter 6. Little Brown Publishing;
ISBN
9780748130603
- ^
Michael Robotham,
Isn't he afraid he'll miss the world?" Last week, Charles Bruce jumped to his death from a light aircraft. Michael Robotham, who collaborated on his life story, looks for reasons
,
The Daily Telegraph
, 16 January 2002, p. 17.
- ^
Freefall
, Tom Read, Published 1998
ISBN
0316848786
; p. 23