BRUCE, DAVID (1824-1911) was born at Cramond, near Edinburgh. Educated at Edinburgh University and the Free Church Divinity Hall, he was ordained in 1853 by the presbytery of Aberdeen, and shortly afterwards sailed in the Simlah for Auckland. Bruce was the first minister of the Presbyterian Church in Auckland, having been appointed by the colonial committee of the Free Church. He was introduced by the Rev W. Lawry, general superintendent of Wesleyan missions, to a charge which embraced the whole of the northern part of New Zealand and was included at first in the synod of Eastern Australia. A presbytery was formed in 1856, and in the years up to 1862 Bruce visited all the outlying districts of Auckland. In 1862 he was released by the presbytery to undertake extension work over the whole of the North Island and as much of the South as was not included in the provincial district of Otago. He was moderator of the Assembly in 1866 and delegate the following year to the conference held in Dunedin on the subject of union. His own charge meanwhile assumed the name of St Andrews. In 1877 Bruce was appointed church agent. In 1889 he went to Sydney, where he was minister of North St Leonards and moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia (1903-04). Bruce was a brother of Professor A. B. Bruce, of the Free Church College, Glasgow. He married Mary Alexandra Sinclair (d. 3 Dec 1870). He died on 15 Dec 1911.

Dickson (P); Johns, Australian Biography.

Reference: Volume 1, page 69

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