Bruce Shand - Early Life

Early Life

Shand was born in London, the son of Philip Morton Shand (1888–1960), an architectural writer and critic who was a close friend of Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier and whose company, Finmar, imported furniture by Alvar Aalto into the United Kingdom. His mother was Edith Marguerite Harrington (1893–1981), later Mrs. Charles Tippett. Bruce Shand's parents divorced when he was three years old. His father went on to remarry three times, but he did not see his father again until he was 18. One of his two half-sisters is Baroness Howe of Idlicote, wife of Geoffrey Howe.

His mother remarried to Herbert Charles Tippett, a golf course designer. Contrary to some newspaper reports, young Bruce was not abandoned by his mother and stepfather but taken to live with them in Westbury, Long Island, New York in 1921, a passage of his life which he rather curiously chose to omit from his autobiography, giving the erroneous impression of having been abandoned. After visiting the UK in June 1923, Bruce and his mother returned to the US in September 1923 with the stated intent (according to US immigration records) of residing permanently in the United States and taking US citizenship. When he returned to the UK it was to begin his education, organised and paid for by his grandparents. His mother and stepfather returned to the UK in 1927 and moved to Ireland in the 1930s. His stepfather died in Rye in 1945 and his mother died in Cooden Beach, Sussex in 1981.

Shand was educated at Rugby and Sandhurst Military Academy, and was commissioned in the 12th Lancers as a second lieutenant in 1937. He became a troop leader in "A" Squadron. His interests included fox hunting and polo.