Robert Bruce

Robert Bruce was a Scottish armament dealer, a mercenary soldier, and a discoverer of the indigenous Assamese tea plant which opened Assam's doors to a great industry.

Bruce was born in Edinburgh, and at some point he joined the army and eventually found himself employed by the East India Company. He was principally involved in establishing opium plantations for the East India Company, but his interest was captured by the tea plants growing in the wild in Assam which he found about in 1823. He realized that if the tea was good, Assam could rival China in tea production. However, Bruce died in 1825 and it was his younger brother Charles Alexander Bruce (1793 - 1871) who established the first tea plantations in India, based on Robert's native plants.