▶Date of birth:  3 November 1847        Place of birth: Portsea, Hampshire

▶Father:  George Walker Cuming     Mother: Emma Hart

▶Spouse(s):  -     Date(s) of marriage:       Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Bruce Cuming led a peripatetic and slightly accident-prone life. He was born in Portsea, Hampshire, in 1847, the third son of George Walker Cuming, and his wife Emma (née Hart).  He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1867, BA 1871, MA 1874.

Cuming was ordained Deacon in 1872, and Priest (both Norwich) in 1873. In 1872 he was licensed Curate of Southwold, Suffolk, until 1874, and moved to become Curate of Christ Church, Ware in 1875. In 1876 he was appointed Curate of Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells before becoming Curate of Peldon, Essex 1879-80 and then Curate of St Nicholas, Colchester 1880-3; while he was there, he was also appointed Chaplain of the Colchester Union 1881-84.

In 1885 he transferred to an inner-city London parish, as Curate of St Mary’s Chapel of Ease in Holloway 1885-92, and then became Chaplain of the Farnham Union, Surrey 1892-8, at the same time serving as Chaplain of Hartley-Wintney district schools and Aldershot Lock Hospital, Hampshire 1892-7.

He was the defendant in 1897 in a breach-of-promise lawsuit for breaking of his engagement was Miss Emily Mary Germaine Lulham; he argued that “their dispositions would prevent mutual happiness”, but was required to pay £1,000 in damages to the plaintiff.

In 1900 he was licensed Curate of Hatherleigh in Devon where, in 1901, he was fined one shilling and expenses for riding a bicycle without a light; he left the parish in the same year and in 1902 was licensed Curate of St Paul’s, Cheltenham, where he leased 4 and 5 Blenheim Parade (now 9 and 11 Evesham Road), Pittville.

In early 1903 he was finally appointed a Vicar, of Inwardleigh, Okehampton, in Devon, but instead, at the end of the year, was appointed Vicar of Felmersham in Bedfordshire from 1903, where he remained until his death. Cuming died, unmarried, at Bedford Nursing Home, 23 Kimbolton Road, Bedford in 1916, at the age of sixty-nine. His estate at death was sworn at over £1,950.

▶Moved to Pittville from: Farnham, Surrey       Moved from Pittville to: Felmersham, Bedfordshire

▶Date of death:  14 December 1916      Place of death: Bedford

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 15173

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden