Vilianahdm at 23:19, 26 August 2025

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{{Short description|British naval officer, explorer and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
'''Charles Alexander Bruce''' (11 January 1793 – 23 April 1871)<ref name="Francis 1902" /><ref name="CNI Church" /> was a British naval officer, explorer and writer. He is known as the father of the tea industry in [[Assam]] (which was part of the [[Bengal Presidency]] from British annexation in 1826 until 1873).<ref name="Narain 2006" /><ref name="Singh 2001" />

==Life==
Bruce was born at [[Jorhat]] in the [[Ahom Kingdom]].<ref>{{cite DIB|wstitle=Bruce, Charles Alexander}}</ref> In 1809 he was a [[midshipman]] on the Indiaman [[Chilean ship Lautaro (1818)|''Windham'']], sailing from England to India. The vessel was captured by French forces, twice, in the Indian Ocean, and he was taken to [[Isle de France (Mauritius)|Mauritius]]. There he was imprisoned on a ship, until the [[Invasion of Isle de France|British invasion of 1810]]. He served as an officer on a British troopship in the [[Invasion of Java (1811)|invasion of Java]].<ref name="Ukers">{{cite book |last1=Ukers |first1=William |title=All About Tea |date=14 June 2017 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-387-04007-0 |pages=146–147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8i4qDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA146 |language=en}}</ref> In India, he worked initially as an officer of the [[Royal Indian Navy#1612–1830, the Bombay Marine|Bombay Marine]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Stephanie |title=Two Centuries Of Overseas Trading |date=27 July 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-07376-4 |page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n8K-DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |language=en}}</ref> Bruce's brother [[Robert Bruce (tea planter)|Robert]] brought to notice the indigenous [[Assam tea|Assamese tea]] plant in 1823 and told Charles of its existence.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

In 1824, Bruce served in the [[First Anglo-Burmese War]], during which he was posted to [[Sadiya]] and made commander of a division of gunboats.<ref name="Barua 1994" /> When the war ended, he continued work patrolling the rivers in Assam in gunboats, under Captain Andrew Charlton, a political officer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burkill |first1=Isaac Henry |title=Chapters on the history of botany in India. |date=1963 |publisher=Bombay Natural History Society |page=57 |url=https://archive.org/details/burkill/page/n50/mode/1up}}</ref>

In 1835, Bruce was charged by the [[British East India Company]] to start tea plantations, and in 1836 resigned his commission with the gunboat flotilla when he was appointed as the superintendent of the Assam tea plantations.<ref name="Kochhar" /> At first, the East India Company tried to plant [[Chinese tea]] in Assam, but the Chinese plants [[cross-pollinate]]d with the indigenous tea plants and the experiment was considered a disaster. In Sadiya, Bruce, acting on his own initiative, planted a nursery that consisted just of indigenous plants. In 1836, he sent a sample of the manufactured tea to the tea committee in Delhi. [[Lord Auckland]] approved this and tea experts stated that the tea was "of good quality". By 1837, Bruce had a consignment delivered to the tea committee – the consignment consisted of 46 chests filled with tea from the indigenous plants.<ref name="Taknet 2003 p21" />

In 1838, Bruce wrote ''An Account of the Manufacture of the Black Tea, As Now Practised at Suddeya in Upper Assam, By The Chinamen Sent Thither For That Purpose.''<ref name="Bruce 1838" /> In 1839 the first consignment of Indian tea was put up for auction in [[Mincing Lane]], London.<ref name="Ukers"/> It consisted of eight chests weighing 350 pounds, auctioned on 10 January.<ref name="Taknet 2003 p21" /> In 1871, Bruce received the gold medal from the [[Royal Society of Arts]] for cultivation of the indigenous tea plants in Assam.<ref name="India Committee" /> He died aged 78 in Assam, where he was buried in the Christian graveyard at [[Tezpur]].<ref name="Francis 1902"/>

==References==
{{reflist
| colwidth = 30em
| refs =

<ref name="Francis 1902">
{{cite book|last=Francis|first=C.|title=List of Inscriptions on Tombs Or Monuments in Assam|year=1902|publisher=Secretariat Printing Office|page=57}}
</ref>

<ref name="Singh 2001">
{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Bavinder|title=Role of Women Workers in the Tea Industry of North East India|year=2001|publisher=Classical Publishing|isbn=978-8170543206|page=15}}
</ref>

<ref name="CNI Church">
{{cite web|last=Church|first=CNI|title=Burial list at Tezpur Christian cemetery|url=http://epiphanychurchtezpur.hpage.co.in/burial-list_12157921.html|publisher=The church of Epiphany|access-date=30 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092437/http://epiphanychurchtezpur.hpage.co.in/burial-list_12157921.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}
</ref>

<ref name="Narain 2006">
{{cite book|last=Narain|first=Amarendra|title=Socio-economic and Political Problems of Tea Garden Workers: A Study of Assam|year=2006|publisher=Mittal|isbn=978-8183240987|page=28|author2=Purendu Kumar|author3=S.N. Singh}}
</ref>

<ref name="Barua 1994">
{{cite book|last=Barua|first=Deepali|title=Urban History of India: A Case Study|year=1994|publisher=South Asia Books|isbn=978-8170995388|page=47}}
</ref>

<ref name="Kochhar">
{{cite journal|last=Kochhar|first=Rajesh|title=Natural history in India during 18th and 19th centuries|journal=Journal of Biosciences|date=June 2013|publisher=Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali|page=21|url=https://www.academia.edu/2654130|quote=On 11 February 1835, Charles Bruce was appointed in charge of nurseries to be developed in Upper Assam, at Sadiya and other places (Tea Parliamentary Papers 1839 p 40; hereafter TPP). A year later, from January 1836, Bruce was designated Superintendent of Tea Plantations at a salary of Rs 400 p. m. With this appointment, Charles Bruce closed his personal business and resigned the gunboat charge.}}
</ref>

<ref name="Taknet 2003 p21">
{{cite book|last=Taknet|first=D.K.|author-link=D. K. Taknet|title=The heritage of Indian tea: the past, the present, and the road ahead|year=2003|publisher=Indian Institute of Marwari Entrepreneurship|isbn=978-8185878010|page=21|editor=Siddharth Mukherjee}}
</ref>

<ref name="India Committee">
{{cite book|last=Committee|first=India|title=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts|year=1871|publisher=Royal Society of Arts|page=620|edition=Volume 19}}
</ref>

<ref name="Bruce 1838">
{{cite book|last=Bruce|first=Charles Alexander|title=An Account of the Manufacture of the Black Tea, As Now Practised at Suddeya in Upper Assaam, By The Chinamen Sent Thither For That Purpose|year=1838|publisher=G H Huttmann, Bengal military orphan press}}
</ref>

}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource author-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Charles Alexander}}
[[Category:Tea industry in Assam]]
[[Category:Bombay Marine officers]]
[[Category:1793 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:People of the Ahom kingdom]]
[[Category:People from the Bengal Presidency]]

Charles Alexander Bruce - Revision history

Vilianahdm at 23:19, 26 August 2025