Nish Bruce

Charles Bruce
Birth name Charles Christian Cameron Bruce
Other name(s) Tom Read
Born (1956-08-08)8 August 1956
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Died 8 January 2002(2002-01-08) (aged 45)
Fyfield, Oxfordshire
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  British Army
Years of service 1973–1988
Rank Sergeant
Service number 24329999
Unit 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1973–78)
The Red Devils (Parachute Regiment) (1978–82)
22 Special Air Service (1982–88)
Battles/wars Ulster (Operation Banner)
Falklands War
Awards Queen's Gallantry Medal

Charles Christian Cameron "Nish" Bruce QGM (8 August 1956 – 8 January 2002) was a British Army soldier.[1][2]

He served with the British Army's Parachute Regiment, and Special Air Service Regiment during the Falklands War, and in Operation Banner in Ulster in the early 1980's, where he was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.[3] In 1998 he published a memoir of his life entitled Freefall, under the pseudonym "Tom Read".[4] After being afflicted with several years of mental ill health, Bruce committed suicide on 8 January 2002 by leaping to his death from an aircraft without a parachute during a flight over South-Eastern England.

Early life

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 World War 2,[5] and the paternal grandson of Major Ewen Cameron Bruce (of Blaen-y-cwm),[6] to whom he bore a close physical resemblance.

Military career

Bruce joined the British Army's Parachute Regiment as a Private in 1973 at the age of 17,[7] and served with the regiment in Ulster in the mid-1970's in Operation Banner.

From 1978 spent 4 years with The Red Devils Display Team,[8] participating in test jumping, international exhibitions and competitions. He subsequently applied for transfer to the Special Air Service Regiment, and after passing its aptitude trials was attached to 22nd Squadron, Special Air Service in April 1982, shortly before the Falklands War commenced.[7]

He served with 22 SAS B Squadron, 7 (Air) Troop from 1982–1986, being attached from 1986–1988 to its G Squadron, 24 (Air) Troop.[4] Whilst with B Squadron 7 Troop, he served with Alistair Slater, Frank Collins and Andy McNab.[2] (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. S.A.S, Bruce parachuted into the South Atlantic Ocean during the Falklands War,[10][11] and took part in Operation Mikado.[4]

In November and December 1984 Bruce was in involved with British Army counter-terrorist operations against Provisional Irish Republican Army units in Kesh, County Fermanagh in Ulster,[4] for which he was awarded awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal[12][13] "for exemplary acts of bravery". One of the operations led to the death in action of his Special Air Service comrade Alistair Slater in a confrontation with PIRA terrorists Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde and Kieran Fleming, who were also killed in the incident. (Slater was posthumously awarded the Military Medal).[14]

Parachuting and flying

At the time of his death, 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. Bruce obtained his BPA Approved Instructor rating in March 1983 and became a Tandem skydiving Pilot/Master in 1987.

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.[4] At the time of his death, Bruce had logged 488 hours in single engined planes; 41 hours in multi-engine planes and 203 hours in Robinson R22 and Jet Ranger Bell 206 helicopters.

Private security career

After leaving the British Army in 1988 with the rank of Sergeant, after a clash with his superiors,[4] Bruce worked in a private security capacity for the comedian Jim Davidson,[15][16] 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 Sir David Sterling and SAS Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Crooke.[17][18][19] 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.[20]

Following Operation Lock, for two years Bruce worked in Washington, D.C. as bodyguard for Lebanese billionaire and current Prime Minister of Lebanon Saad Hariri.[4]

'Skydive from Space' project, and 1993 Mount Everest expedition

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.[4] He trained with Loel Guinness' High Adventure Company and Joe Kittinger

In return for NASA support on the 'Skydive from Space' project, Nish Bruce, Harry Taylor and experienced mountaineers from High Adventure joined NASA scientist and Space Shuttle Challenger crew member Karl Gordon Henize in a joint expedition to climb the North Ridge Route of Mount Everest in late 1993. The purpose of this expedition was to assist NASA to test a meter called a "tissue equivalent proportional counter" (TEPC) at different altitudes (17,000 ft, 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft) as with plans for longer duration space missions it was important to know how people's bodies would be affected, including the way bodily tissues behaved when struck by radiation.[4]

The expedition was cut short following the death of Karl Henize, who died of high altitude pulmonary edema on 5 October 1993.[4][21][22] Although the expedition was marred by the death of Henize, the TEPC meter had done its job, and when it was later analysed at NASA Headquarters, an increment was added to the human physiology database.[23]

Psychological illness

Bruce had a nervous breakdown in February 1994 whilst living in Chamonix, France, [4][24] where he without warning suddenly attempted to murder his girlfriend with a pair of scissors, stabbing her several times before being being dragged off of her by another male that was present. He was confined shortly afterwards by the local authorities to a French psychiatric hospital.[7][4] The High Adventure 'Skydive from Space' Project was abandoned in consequence, and he began receiving psychiatric medical treatment.

Freefall (1998)

Bruce came to public prominence in 1998 when his autobiography entitled Freefall was published,[4][25] under the pseudonym 'Tom Read', ghost written by Michael Robotham over a period of 12 months.[7] The book detailed Bruce's military career, the 'Skydive From Space' project and the ascent of Mount Everest, and his subsequent descent into mental illness and subsequent 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".

Death

Despite periods of psychological recovery, after eight years of consistent recurring mental illness,[26] and being intermittently legally sectioned in mental hospitals, Bruce committed suicide 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 5000 feet to his death.[27] His body was subsequently found on a football pitch at the village of Fyfield in Oxfordshire. He was 45 years old.[28] His military career and the manner of his death resulted in extensive media coverage of the incident.[29][30][31][32] There has been conjecture that Bruce's psychological breakdown was attributable to posttraumatic stress disorder incurred from his military career.[33]

On 16 January 2002, Bruce's body was cremated at Banbury Crematorium in Oxfordshire, its ashes were subsequently scattered by his son and former colleagues during a memorial skydive in April 2002 at Hinton Skydiving Centre.[34]

Quotations

  • 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.[35]

Publications

  • Freefall (1998)

References

  1. ↑ Special Forces Roll of Honour, 22 SAS Archived 5 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. 1 2 McNab, Andy (1996). Immediate Action. Corgi Adult. pp. 175–176. ISBN 0-552-14276-X.
  3. ↑ Medals of Britain – Orders, Decorations and Medals
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 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.
  5. ↑ Caygill, Peter. Spitfire Mark V in Action: 'RAF Operations in Northern Europe'. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 2001. pp.42-3 & 258.
  6. ↑ Townend, Peter. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edition. 3 volumes. London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965-1972.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Addley, Esther. "Archived copy". 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)
  8. ↑ Nish Bruce Red Devils Stories (Newcastle Show with the Gorilla & 1993 Naked Cyprus Jump) Archived 23 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ McNab, Andy. "Archived copy". 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
  10. ↑ Sengupta, Kim. "Archived copy". 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
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ McNab, Andy. Seven Troop (2008), pp. 184–87; ISBN 9780552158664
  13. ↑ QGM citation for Bruce in the 1986 London Gazette
  14. ↑ Medal award for Al Slater (posthumous)
  15. ↑ Davidson, Jim. The Full Monty, The Autobiography of Jim Davidson (1993), pp. 194–97; ISBN 0-7515-0737-7
  16. ↑ Davidson, Jim. Close to the Edge, The Autobiography of Jim Davidson (2002), Afterward Chapter; ISBN 0091881048
  17. ↑ Hanks, John. Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching (2015), p.64; ISBN 9781770227293
  18. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2013. , The WWF – The First 50 Years (paragraph 6)
  19. ↑ Potgieter, Det Wet. Contraband: South Africa and the International Trade in Ivory and Rhino Horn, p. 145 (Publisher: Queillerie, 1995); ISBN 9781874901488
  20. ↑ Hanks, John. Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching (2015), p.193; ISBN 9781770227293
  21. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2017. , The Independent report on the death of Karl Heinze, 23 October 1993
  22. ↑ NASA: Press Release: Former Astronaut Karl Henize dies on Mt. Everest Expedition Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine., 8 October 1993
  23. ↑ Kalpa Group website Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  24. ↑ Andy McNab's News. Remembering Nish's Dream Archived 23 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine., greymansland.com
  25. ↑ – Read, Tom Freefall (1998) Archived 26 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  26. ↑ Challand, Christine. The Mirror, "Nish believed I was an Undercover IRA agent. Police had to send in a SWAT team"], 26 January 2002.
  27. ↑ , Allison, Rebecca. The Guardian, "Suicide Verdict – Depressed pilot leapt to death" (21 June 2002)
  28. ↑ "SAS Soldier dies in plane plunge", CNN World News, 10 January 2002.
  29. ↑ English, Rebecca. Archived 17 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Daily Mail, "How I fought to stop SAS man's suicide leap" (January 2002)
  30. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2017. BBC News, "Falklands veterans claim suicide toll", 13 January 2002.
  31. ↑ Dyer, Clare. "The Forgotten Army" Archived 11 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine.. The Guardian, 16 January 2002.
  32. ↑ Kennedy, Michael. Soldier 'I' – The Story of an SAS Hero (2011), p. 350. Osprey Publishing; ISBN 9781849086509
  33. ↑ Banks, Tony. Storming the Falklands, My War and After (2012). Chapter 6. Little Brown Publishing; ISBN 9780748130603
  34. ↑ 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.
  35. ↑ Freefall, Tom Read, Published 1998 ISBN 0316848786; p. 23
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