Rooney, BM

Lieutenant Bruno Martin Rooney

Bruno was born on August 9th 1885, the ninth of eleven children born to brush maker Robert Rooney and his wife, Frances. He joined Dulwich in 1898, having previously been a boarder in a small school in Austria; he was the only one of the seven Rooney brothers to come to the College, although his sister, Olive, would go on to marry a fellow OA, Eustace Pike. He left Dulwich in 1901 and at first spent time working as an engineer at the Thames Iron Works in East London, before later joining The Assam Co., a tea-planting firm. With his new firm he went out to Assam in India, where he spent seven years working as a tea planter and was also associated with the Assam Light Horse.
After war was declared Bruno returned to England, landing in London on New Year’s Day 1915, aboard the Persia. Upon his return he enlisted as a member of the Army and as a result of his experience with the Assam Light Horse was granted a commission in the 9th Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. That May he was sent to Gallipoli,where he was attached to the 1st Battalion of his regiment. He was killed in action on June 28th and is buried at Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery. His brother-in-law, Eustace Pike, would later die in November 1917, at Passchendaele.