A son of R. Bruce-Lockhart, a schoolmaster of Eagle House School near Sandhurst and of his wife, Florence Stuart Macgregor, J.H. Bruce-Lockhart was sent to Sedbergh School, where he was Head of School House, Captain of Football, and Captain of Cricket.
Sedbergh School.
He was also the grandfather of Lord Bruce-Lockhart and great-grandfather of actor Dugald Bruce Lockhart. After Sedbergh, he went on to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. There, he was a double Blue, for rugby football and cricket.
John Bruce-Lockhart appeared twice for Scotland at first-class cricket level, against Ireland in 1910 and an All India side in 1911.
In the match against Ireland he took eleven wickets, including six for 76 in the second innings. The rest of his first class games were played with Cambridge University, for whom he took over one hundred wickets.
He was an international rugby football player, representing Scotland as a fly half. Bruce-Lockhart became an assistant master at Rugby School in 1912.
During the First World War, he served in France in the Intelligence Corps with the British Expeditionary Force and was mentioned in despatches.
After the war, he returned to his teaching career at Rugby and became a housemaster there in 1923. In 1930 he was appointed as Headmaster of Cargilfield School, and in 1937 moved on to become head of his old school, Sedbergh, where he remained until he retired in 1954.
