VE Day 75th anniversary: The Bruce family and world war (Part 3)

Section Officer Constance Babington-Smith MBE (WAAF/RAF): discovering the Nazis’ weapons of mass destruction Constance Babington-Smith (1912-2000), a grand-daughter of Victor Bruce 9th Earl of Elgin, joined the WAAF in 1939 as an Assistant Section Officer. In 1941 she was posted to the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) at RAF Medmenham, where she was later joined by her brother Bernard. The unit …

VE Day 75th anniversary: The Bruce family and world war (Part 2)

Flight Lieutenant Robert Bruce DFC and Bar (RCAF): hunting the V-1 Flying Bomb Born at Inverkeilor in Angus, Robert Bruce (1915-2012) was a great-nephew of Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, (grandfather of Constance Babington-Smith). A gifted musician, Robert entered the war as a conscientious objector working with the Friends Ambulance Service during the London Blitz. He was eventually persuaded …

Broomhall House and the world’s most prominent motoring icon (Part Two)

Above: The Bruce family’s 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Returning from a workshop in Monktonhall where it spent the winter, the Bruce family’s 1923 Silver Ghost is now sporting a pair of very smart period headlamps. This Rolls-Royce fixed head coupe has been kept at Broomhall for over fifty years. Although its body is French – built by the master coachworks, …

Broomhall House hosts Robert Graham brand event

Broomhall House hosts first ever New World Cigar and Scotch Whisky fusion festival Broomhall House provided a memorable celebration for Robert Graham Ltd, founded in 1874, one of the UK’s oldest whisky and tobacco merchants. Taking the form of a New World cigar and Scotch whisky fusion festival, the 145th anniversary event was attended by 140 guests from around the …

Portrait painting of man and cover of book

Carrying on up the Nile – 250 years on

Featuring an epic African journey, Return to the Nile is a National Geographic commissioned biopic marking the 50th anniversary of Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s 1969 pan-African odyssey. The film follows the Fiennes cousins, Ranulph and Joseph, as they pursue the former’s footsteps. At Broomhall House memories of a much earlier – and just as ambitious – Nile journey can be found …