Brigadier-General The Honourable Charles Granville Bruce, CB, MVO (7 April 1866 – 12 July 1939) was a veteran Himalayan mountaineer and leader of the second and third British expeditions to Mount Everest in 1922 and 1924.

In Wales, his mentor was a local farmer and inn-keeper, who in his youth had worked as a hunter in California and British Columbia.

Half a century later he was proud to list their names in his memoirs; "Bill the Butcher, Shoni Kick-O-Top, Billie Blaen Llechau, Dick Shon Edwards & Dai Brass-Knocker".

The gang were duly punished, but gained revenge by returning to Bruce's house and stealing all the weapons from his father's gun-room.

He had huge physical strength, was an enthusiastic boxer and 300-yard runner, and in the 1880s represented England against France in an international running meeting.

[1] As a young lieutenant he was posted to Abbottabad, a British hill station in the Panjab, where he developed a passion for the locality, wrestling and climbing.

He introduced hill racing to his Gurkha regiment and in 1891 took his champion runner Pabir Thapa to Zermatt, in Switzerland, to learn ice-climbing.

In 1892, with a troop of Gurkha soldiers he accompanied Martin Conway in his exploration of the Baltoro region of the Karakorum, visiting Muztagh Tower, Broad Peak and K2.

After two months in the front line he was severely wounded and was transferred back to India, where he commanded the Bannu Brigade on the North West Frontier from 1916 to 1919.

He was skilful in bridging the cultural divide between Sahib and Sherpa, and had long advocated training Indians in mountain techniques, with a view to forming a body of porters and guides like those in the European Alps.

Captain Noel will be arriving in Darjeeling with a box forty foot long and I am currently scouring the country for an adequate mule.Please note that I am doing my best for this expedition.

Hurry up with that thousand [pounds] please.Bruce contracted malaria while tiger shooting in India before the expedition, and had to be stretchered out of Tibet.