James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, KT, GCB, KCSI, PC, FSA Scot (20 July 1811 – 20 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served as Governor of Jamaica (1842–1846), Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1854), and Viceroy of India (1862–1863).[1] In 1857, he was appointed High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary in China and the Far East to assist in the process of opening up China and Japan to Western trade. In 1860, during the Second Opium War in China, he ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, an architectural wonder with immeasurable collections of artworks and historic antiques, inflicting incalculable loss of cultural heritage.[2] Subsequently, he compelled the Qing dynasty to sign the Convention of Peking, adding Kowloon Peninsula to the British crown colony of Hong Kong.
The Earl of Elgin
Sir Robert Napier
As Acting Governor-General
Victoria
Victoria
George Berkeley
As Acting Governor
20 July 1811
London, England
20 November 1863 (aged 52)
Dharamshala, Punjab, British India
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Elizabeth Cumming-Bruce(m. 1841; died 1843)
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
Elizabeth Oswald
Elgin married Elizabeth Mary Cumming-Bruce, the only child of MP Charles Lennox Cumming-Bruce, on 22 April 1841. The marriage was short lived, his wife dying shortly after the birth of their second daughter on 7 June 1843 in Jamaica. They had, along with another daughter:[13]
On 7 November 1846, Elgin married Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the 1st Earl of Durham, a prominent author of the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) (as well as Governor General of the Canadas), and niece of the Colonial Secretary the 3rd Earl Grey (who was uncle to Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, later Governor General of Canada). They had four sons and a daughter:[13]
Controversy and English-based memorials[edit]
In Ontario, the towns of Kincardine, Port Elgin, and Bruce Mines, and Bruce County and Elgin County are named for the 8th Earl. The long Bruce Peninsula into Lake Huron, and the communities of Elgin, New Brunswick and Elgin, Nova Scotia are also named for him. There are numerous Elgin Roads and Elgin Streets in Canada and in India.
The Elgin Bridge in Singapore, and Elgin Street, Carlton, State of Victoria, and Elgin Street, Hong Kong are also named for Bruce, as is the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa.
[14]
Elgin's legacy in Canada was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada short docudrama, Lord Elgin: Voice of the People (1959), directed by Julian Biggs.[15]
While China has opened up to French relations, the sale of Chinese art and artifacts in British auctions remains a point of tension between London and Beijing.[16] All zodiac animal heads from the Summer Palace that have been found have returned to Chinese museums, however.[17]