Son of Captain Evan Bruce-Gardyne, DSO, RN, 13th Laird of Middleton, and a member of a Scottish landholding family who have been based in the county of Angus since at least 1008 AD, he was born in Chertsey, Surrey.
He held the seat until the October 1974 general election, when he lost to Andrew Welsh of the Scottish National Party.
His well-known publication, Meriden: Odyssey Of A Lame Duck, virulently attacked Tony Benn's creation of the Meriden Workers' Co-operative to continue production of Triumph Motorcycles.
He was created a life peer as Baron Bruce-Gardyne, of Kirkden in the District of Angus, on 7 October 1983.
He died of a brain tumour in Kensington and Chelsea at the age of sixty.