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Brigadier General Charles G. Bruce was the leader of the 1922 and 1924 British Mount Everest Expeditions.

Charles Bruce was born in London on 7 April 1866, the youngest son of Henry Austin Bruce, first Baron Aberdare (1815–1895), politician, and his second wife, Nora Creina Blanche, youngest daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir William Napier. He had three brothers and eight sisters. They lived at Dyffryn, an estate in Glamorgan, and at Queen's Gate, London.

He was educated at Harrow School (1879–80) and Repton School (1881–4), and spent two years in the militia in York, where he was a noted wrestler and runner. He was commissioned in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire light infantry in 1887; and he served briefly with an Indian regiment in Madras and Burma before moving in 1889 to the 5th Gurkha Rifles, the regiment with which he served for most of his career. During the Tirah campaign Bruce cut the Gurkhas' tight-fitting breeches off above the knee, an improvisation that was once said to have introduced shorts into the Indian and British armies. In 1891 Bruce studied the equipment of Italian mountain troops in Turin, and he ran a training course for frontier scouts from 1891 to 1913. He taught staff college instructors in his training methods on the slopes of Snowdonia in 1910.

Bruce travelled widely in the Himalayas and organised porters for several important mountaineering expeditions. In 1907 and 1910 Bruce developed serious proposals for the ascent of Mount Everest that were abandoned for political reasons.

On 12 September 1894 he married Finetta Madeline Julia, daughter of Colonel Sir Edward Fitzgerald Campbell, second baronet; and their only child, a son, died in infancy in the Himalayas.

After being adjutant and second-in-command of the 5th Gurkha Rifles he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in May 1913, and in May 1914 he was appointed to command the 6th Gurkha Rifles. He went with them to Egypt for the defence of the Suez Canal at the outbreak of war in 1914. In Gallipoli he commanded the depleted battalions of the 29th Indian Brigade, including the 5th and 6th Gurkhas at Gurkha bluff, for which he was mentioned in dispatches three times and was promoted to Brevet Colonel in November 1915. Severely wounded in the leg, he was evacuated before the withdrawal, and on discharge from hospital was appointed general officer commanding the independent frontier brigade at Bannu, a position he held from 1916 to 1919. He commanded the North Waziristan field force in 1917, and served in the Third Anglo-Afghan War (May 1919). In these operations he was mentioned twice in dispatches. His health deteriorated in the heat, and he was invalided out of the service with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General in 1920.

When Tibet unexpectedly granted permission for a Mount Everest expedition, Bruce could not obtain leave to join the first reconnaissance in 1921, but he was appointed leader of the next expedition in 1922. He was too old to take part in the climbing, but his knowledge of Himalayan languages and military organisation, his cheerfulness and joviality, and the Gurkhas he brought to organise the porters all contributed to the expedition's success. Captain John Geoffrey Bruce (his cousin) and George Finch reached a record elevation of 27,300 ft using oxygen.

In 1924 Bruce was again appointed Everest leader, but contracted malaria on a tiger hunt immediately before the expedition. On the march to Everest he became seriously ill and turned the leadership over to Colonel E. F. Norton. Bruce became the model for later Everest leaders.

After his wife's death in 1932 he wrote his autobiography, Himalayan Wanderer (1934), and moved to 27 St Mary Abbot's Terrace, London, where he died on 12 July 1939.

Son of Charles Johnson Brooke, 2nd Rajah of Sarawak, and Margaret de Windt. He was educated at Winchester and Magdalene College (matriculated in 1894). He failed to take a degree as his main interest was horse-racing.

He succeeded his father in 1917. His rule ended in 1946 with cession to the Crown.

Arms in Hall glass, W3.

Rupert Brooke studied Classics at King's College, Cambridge between 1906 and 1909 where he met and became friends with Hugh Dalton. He became involved in various Cambridge groups, and was widely acknowledged as a handsome and charismatic figure about the university. He was a member of the Fabian Society and the Marlowe Dramatic Society both of which George Mallory was also a member.

Daughter of Clayton de Windt, cousin and wife of the 2nd Rajah of Sarawak whom she married in 1869. Mother of Charles Vyner Brooke.
Once estranged from husband after producing the necessary heirs, she returned to London, where she was at the centre of a social circle that included several of the leading literary talents of the 1890s, such as Oscar Wilde and Henry James.
Her younger brother Harry matriculated from Maagdalene in 1875, and was afterwards ADC to the Rajah.
As ‘Ghita’ (her childhood name), the Ranee composed the Sarawak National Anthem (1872).

Friend of George Mallory, born in Ireland, wife of Brigadier Walter Headfort Brooke.

Mary Henrietta Mallory was born in 1885 and was the older sister of George Mallory [there were four siblings - Annie Victoria (known as Avie), Mary, George and Trafford]. Mary married Francis Ralph Russell Brooke on 22 July 1914 who served with the Royal Garrison Artillery in the Great War. They had two children, David and Barbara.

Made an Honorary Fellow in 1965 in succession to T. S. Eliot. This was felt appropriate, not only because of his reputation as a composer, but also because he was a MusD without College affiliation, long associated with the Cambridge University Musical Society. Britten was already in declining health by the time of his election, and the College saw little of him.
Life peer, 1976: Baron Britten of Aldeburgh.

Obituary by J. E. Stevens in the College Magazine vol. 21 (1976-77) pp 7-8

Son of the physician who first diagnosed Bright’s disease.

He matriculated from Magdalene College in 1835. Hebraist. The proctors resigned after his defence of an offending undergraduate, and their resignation was accepted by the Senate after a long discussion.
c. 1843 elected Fellow
1851 - 1872 Tutor
1853 - 1873 President of Magdalene College.

From middle-life, his mobility was impaired and he was confined to a sofa. He spent much of his time making a new transcription of the Pepys Diary of which he was the second editor. He was paralysed from 1880, having retired to London in 1873.

His benefaction to the College made possible the erection of Bright’s Building (1909).

Arms in Hall glass, W1.

An English painter of portraits and historical scenes. Briggs was born at Walworth, County Durham, the son of a post office official. His cousin was Amelia Opie (née Alderson), the wife of artist John Opie (whose portrait was later painted by Briggs). While still at school at Epping he sent two engravings to the Gentleman's Magazine and in 1811 entered as a student at the Royal Academy, London, where he began to exhibit in 1814. From that time onwards until his death he was a constant exhibitor at the annual exhibitions of the Academy, as well as the British Institution, his paintings being for the most part historical in subject. After his election as a Royal Academician (RA) in 1832 he devoted his attention almost exclusively to portraiture. Briggs died, of tuberculosis in London on 18 January 1844, aged 50/51.

Matriculated in 1619 from Magdalene College probably aged about 13. His father was John Bridgman (also Magdalene) who was chaplain to James I and became Bishop of Chester in 1619.

BA in 1623 and elected Fellow in 1624. His father wouldn't let him accept the Fellowship on the grounds that they should be reserved for men of more modest means.
MP for Wigan, 1640; University Counsel, 1642; Kt, 1643, Baronet, 1660.

A lawyer who specialised in conveyancing (a critical concern in the aftermath of the Civil War) and was a prominent Royalist. He presided in the trial of the regicides. Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1660; Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1667-1672 (in effect Lord Chancellor). In Pepys’s view ‘a mighty able man’ (Diary vol 8, p 421), and probably the College’s most eminent lawyer. Patron of the poet Traherne.

Bridgeman's reports, spanning his time as chief justice of the common pleas, are in the British Library (BL, Hargrave MSS 55–58).
Personal papers - there are notebooks and letters relating to Bridgeman family and public affairs in the Staffordshire Record Office, and some miscellaneous correspondence at Longleat.

Arms in Hall glass, W3.

In the College Magazine
Article: 'Sir Orlando Bridgman: the College's seventeenth century legal star'. by N. G. Jones, College Magazine vol. 40 (1995-96) pp 31-36

Educated King's School Worcester. Matriculated in 1964 (Scholar). PhD 1975, Fellow 1968, Tutor 1984–1993. University Lecturer 1974, Reader 1993–2000, Professor of German Literature & Intellectual History 2000, Schröder Professor of German 2006. W. Heinemann Prize, RSL, 1992; Goethe Medal 2000, Gundolf Prize 2009; Corresponding Fellow, Göttingen Academy of Sciences, 2010. Recreation: 'enjoying other people's gardens'.

A Monaco sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy.Apart from the imperial busts and the statue of Louis XVI, other important works included the quadriga of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the statue of Hercules fighting Acheloos transformed into a snake in the Louvre. Many of his most important sculptures and statues can today be found in the Louvre museum in Paris.

Son of Lucien Bonaparte. Officer and Deputy of Corsica in the Constituent Assembly.

French politician and diplomat.

King of Holland.

Trained as a lawyer, was a member of the French legislature and accompanied his brother, Napoleon I, on military campaigns. He held diplomatic posts before and after his brother’s coup in 1799, including negotiating the Treaty of Amiens with Britain in 1802. He was made king of Naples by Napoleon in 1806, where he reformed justice, landowning, finance, and education, but in 1808 was ordered by Napoleon to become king of Spain. There his reforms were resisted and he was heavily dependent on French troops and advisers.