Childhood Charles Bruce was born in
Port Shoreham,
Nova Scotia to William Henry Bruce and Sarah Jane Tory. He was his parents' fifth child, and first boy. His childhood friends, Harold MacIntosh and Wilbur Cummings, describe him as being just like other local boys, but also slightly different in that he was "always in the books". From grades one through ten Bruce attended a one room schoolhouse in Port Shoreham, near
MacPherson Lake. At age 13, he entered his first poetry competition: a
limerick contest in the Halifax
Evening Echo. His poem won the prize of $1 and was published by the paper on 21 February 1920.
Education Bruce left home to attend
Mount Allison University in 1923 and graduated in 1927. During his time at Mount Allison, he contributed to the campus magazine, the
Argosy. He was Assistant Editor of the Argosy for the 1925–1926 school year. On 24 April 1926, he was unanimously elected as editor-in-chief of the
Argosy for the 1926–1927 school year. Bruce paid for the publication of his first poetry collection,
Wild Apples, in 1927. Nine of the thirteen poems of this collection had previously been published in the
Argosy.
Career Pre-war Bruce began his career in journalism in May 1927 at the Halifax
Morning-Chronicle. He worked at the
Chronicle for eight months before joining the
New York office of
The Canadian Press. After 8 months in New York, he was transferred to the CP editorial staff at Halifax. While working in Halifax, he released his second poetry collection, ''Tomorrow's Tide'', late in 1932. In September 1933, after five years with CP in Halifax, he was transferred CP's Toronto bureau. In 1936, he was promoted from assistant news editor to news editor of CP. In 1937, he was promoted again to general news editor for Canada.
War correspondent In February 1944, Bruce temporarily left his position as general news editor to become superintendent of the CP London bureau, arriving to take up his new position in March. In September 1944, he was asked by the
Air Ministry if he would like to personally cover the flights dropping supplies to Allied airborne troops during
Operation Market Garden. His first and only flight was on 20 September 1944, he wrote about his experience as follows:
Our pilot, Doug Robertson, took his big plane straight and low over the dropping zone through a literal hell of flak. The bomb aimer, Norman Roseblade, let go the cannisters, "bang on". Robbie pulled her nose up and to port, heading out of the area. In a moment the navigator, Lem Prowse, would be calling in a course for home. Then the flak slammed into us. It hit "P for Peter" with the shock of a giant fist. For a split second the aircraft seemed steady on her course. then she went into a screaming nosedive.Robertson managed to recover the aircraft, but they were too close to the ground to parachute and still over enemy territory. The crew managed to bring the aircraft back over friendly territory and crash land in Belgium. A signal was sent to the aircraft's home base to confirm that all were safe, but it did not get through. Bruce filed a dispatch from Brussels confirming he was alive, but it did not reach London until after he arrived back at his office on 22 September. Robertson, Roseblade, and Prowse were killed in action a few months after the incident. Bruce returned to Canada in July 1945. Number 5 typewriter used by Charles Bruce and later his son
Harry Bruce.
Post-war Upon his return to Toronto, Bruce was made general superintendent of the Canadian Press. His third poetry collection,
Grey Ship Moving, was published November of that year. Grey Ship moving was shortlisted for the
Governor General's Award for English-language Poetry or Drama in the
1946 Governor General's Awards. In 1947, he released his next poetry collection,
The Flowing Summer. The collection was inspired by his son Alan's visit to Port Shoreham in the Summer of 1943. His final poetry collection,
The Mulgrave Road, was published in 1951, and was awarded the Governor General's Award for English-language Poetry or Drama at the
1951 Governor General's Awards. His first work of fiction,
The Channel Shore, was on the shortlist for the
Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the
1954 Governor General's Awards. His second work of fiction,
The Township of Time (1959), was collection of short stories from the same setting as
The Channel Shore. He is credited with being the primary creator of the
Canadian Press Style Book. Bruce retired from the Canadian press on 11 May 1963, his 57th birthday Shortly after his retirement, he accepted an offer from
Southam News to write a history of the organization. The book, titled
News and the Southams, was published in 1968. Over the next three years, Bruce began working on another work of fiction. Despite his health declining considerably in 1970, he completed a 313 page draft of this novel titled
The Drift of Light. Bruce died on 19 December 1971, in
Toronto. He is buried near his family homestead in
Boylston, Nova Scotia.
Personal life Charles married Gladys Agnes King on 13 December 1929 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had four sons: Alan (b.1931),
Harry (b.1934), Andrew (b.1937), and Harvey (b.1950). == Legacy ==