Remembering World War II

Name: David Harris (Harry) Bruce Rank: Private First Class Service Number: 31111712 Service: Hdg., 512 Engineer Light Pontoon Company, 512th Engineers, US Army Date of Birth: January 18, 1919 Place of Birth: Ashland, Grafton County, New Hampshire Date of Enlistment: August 17, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Manchester, New Hampshire Address at Enlistment: Ashland, Grafton County, New Hampshire Age at Enlistment: 23 Occupation: Textile manufacturing Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Height: 5 feet, 7 inches Complexion: Light Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Date of Death: January 1, 1943 Age at Death: 23 Cemetery: Green Grove Cemetery, Ashland, Grafton County, New Hampshire David Harris Bruce was the son of Robert Bonner Bruce (1886-1961) and Daisy Lela (Harris) Bruce (1877- 1931), and husband of Marion Elaine (Craigue) Bruce (1915-1999). His siblings were Henry Harris Bruce (1908-1988), Harriet Louise (Bruce) Addison (1910-1984), Allen Benjamin Bruce (1917-1976), and Alice Annabell (Bruce) Barney/Barnier (1917-1991). His father was born in White River Junction, Windsor County, Vermont, and his mother was born in Shelburne, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia. David registered for the US Draft on October 16, 1940, in New Hampshire and was working for LW Packard and Co at the time, a textile mill that had been in Ashland, NH, in the heart of the lake’s region of New Hampshire since 1919 and still exists today. He enlisted in the US Army on August 17, 1942, and married Marion Elaine Craigue 3 days later August 20, 1942. David and Marion had two daughters, Patricia Ann [Vierstra] (1940-2019) and Sharon Bruce (1941- 2020). He completed initial training with Battery B of the 9th Battalion at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Private First Class David H. Bruce was serving at Madison Barracks in Sackett's Harbor near the city of Waterdown in Jefferson County, New York when he died accidently on New Year’s Day 1943 at the 5-story Woodruff Hotel in Waterdown, New York’s Public Square. It was reported in the Press and Sun Bulletin January 2nd that he plunged accidentally from a hotel window. The January 2nd Times Record in Troy NY reported that “Private David H. Bruce, stationed at nearby Madison Barracks, died Thursday from a fall from a hotel window. Bruce who was spending New Year’s Eve at the Hotel Woodruff with several other soldiers, lost his balance when he went to a fourth-floor window for air.” Private First Class David H. Bruce was interred 3 days later, on January 4, 1943, at the Green Grove Cemetery in his home town of Ashland in Grafton Co., New Hampshire.

David Harris Bruce

Sources: findagrave Honorstates.org – David H. Bruce Ithaca Journal, Ithaca, New York, Wednesday, January 6, 1943, page 11 Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghampton, New York, Saturday, January 2, 1943, page 12 The Times Record, Troy, New York, Saturday, January 2, 1943, page 1

A crowd in front of the Woodruff Hotel circa 1945