Major General Becomes Highest Ranking Officer to Have Gay Wedding
August 6, 2021Major General Alastair Bruce, who served in the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in the Falklands War in 1982, has become the highest ranking British officer to have a same-sex wedding. After 20 years in the closet, Major General Bruce married his partner, Stephan Knott, in full mess dress at a service in Edinburgh.
When Major Gen Bruce joined the army in 1979, it was illegal to be gay and serve. Those who were outed would be dishonorably discharged, and some had medals confiscated. The ban ended in 2000. Maj Gen Bruce met Knott a year later, while lecturing on a cruise ship off the Great Barrier Reef, but continued to keep his relationship quiet. "I think I had spent most of my life keeping it quiet anyway. Attitudes socially were somewhat different to what they are today.
"Some people haven't altered their view but most people have. As a consequence, in almost every professional interest I had at the time, there would have been an issue.
"As you join the army, you have to adapt to be more physically able – it's all part of the training. So I think I had been well trained to cover up the fact that I had a particular sexuality and I just quietly got on with living as well as serving."
The Major General is now Governor of Edinburgh Castle.
Talking of when he met his husband, Maj Gen Bruce said, "I never thought anyone came to my lectures under the age of 40," he said. "I was amazed he would be interested in some of the historical stuff I talk about.
"But he returned and we got chatting and it just took time, and within a few months, he left where he lived in Northern Ireland to come and live with me in this country.
"It was such a huge brave step by him and I was awakened by his capacity for love to realize what really mattered in life. And although we continued to maintain a very low-key relationship, we knew this was something that was going to last."
The wedding reception was held at Edinburgh Castle.
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