Former Shire Presidents of The Hills Shire

William Charles Hamilton Bruce served as a Councillor from 1941-1947 and as Shire President from 1944-1945.

He was born in Canterbury in 1904 to George Hamilton and Lillian Gertrude Bruce. One of the first major incidents in his life was at the age of 11. It was the death of his father on Gallipoli on 8 August 1915. There is some confusion in the National Archives Records as to whether his father was a private or sergeant at the time of his death but nevertheless his name is recorded on the Lone Pine Memorial. As the eldest son, William had the privilege of receiving the Memorial Plaque and Memorial Scroll.

William Charles Hamilton Bruce married Loma Hawthorne Ellis at Petersham All Saints Church where his occupation was listed as a Poultry Farmer and by the 1943 Electoral Roll he was living on Windsor Rd Baulkham Hills as a poultry farmer. His previous Electoral address was Bankstown in 1938. The move, sometime between 1938 and 1943, gave him the right to apply for election onto the local council.

It is difficult to say where exactly on Windsor Rd he lived as a later Electoral Roll was no more helpful only listing a Road Mail Box number 24 which were usually serviced by contractors. A former Australia Post employee was able to tell me that RMB24 was later converted to 60 Jasper Road which now is a c1980s house suggesting the original has been replaced. It also suggests a driveway leading in from Windsor Road.

In the Farmer and Settler newspaper 16 November 1939 on Trove, W H Bruce was elected to the NSW Egg Board as Chairman and in Farmer and Settler in June 1954 when he was still Chairman, “from his property called “Willoma” at Baulkham hills, [it states that] 24 hour supervision is a feature in the hatchery and body, size and egg size and stamina coupled with the world’s finest hatching equipment ensure quality chickens (of his high class White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds of which the farm carries 2,000”.

One can only surmise that his position at the Egg Board as well as supervising his huge Poultry Farm was adequate reason to cut short his Council activities. He was also a member of the local Kenthurst Rhode Island Red Society which I am sure would have had him exhibiting his stock at least at Castle Hill Show if not the Royal Agricultural Show.

His wife Loma passed away in 1974 and he died in 1993. (Photo of William Hamilton Bruce. Most generously provided with permission to use in our Newsletter by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW)

Story and image credit of The Hills District Historical Society