Major-General Sir David Bruce

Abstract

David Bruce (1855-1931), Scottish bacteriologist and parasitologist, was the only son of David Bruce and his wife Jane Hamilton. In 1884 he was posted to Malta as an army surgeon and two years later discovered the bacterial cause of Malta fever. In 1894 he was send to the British garrison in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Colony. The governor of Natal, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson arranged for his secondment to investigate nagana among cattle in Zululand. Captain Bruce and his wife spent from November 1894 to January 1895 at Ubombo, north-east of Lake St Lucia. During this period he found that nagana was caused by a blood parasite. After his return to Pietermaritzburg the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon of Natal, H. Watkins-Pitchford arranged for Sir Bruce to be seconded to the Allerton Laboratory (opened during the first half of 1898), where they started an investigation into African horse sickness (Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science)