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Bruce Crosby HALAHAN

1925-2005

John Halahan writes:

Bruce Crosby Halahan was born on 1st December 1925 at Alverstoke, Hampshire. He was the middle son of Lieutenant Frederick J C and Agatha K Halahan. There were three sons, two of which (Bruce and Max) attended Framlingham College. The youngest son Maxwell C Halahan survives and currently lives in Southsea, Hampshire.

John Waddell's booklet: "Their Swords are in Your Keeping" which has just been published by the SOF in fact shows Bruce as the middle of the three cadets on the front cover. When I asked him about the event he said that he remembered his puttees unravelling when the parade finished and they were marched off. It seems that this incident somewhat upset the RSM of the time! Bruce was a keen on athletics, particularly the high jump, whilst at the College, and was Captain of Athletics.

After leaving in 1942, Bruce went up to St Catherine's College, Cambridge but left to join the Navy. He served in aircraft carriers until the end of hostilities.

He then joined the Metropolitan Police for a few years before joining Royal Federation of Malaya Police and reached the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police. It was whilst in Malaya that he met and married his wife Rose for the first time in 1956. Some 16 years later and due to an over zealous interpretation of officialdom by a minor official in the UK, he married her again in 1972 in Depwade, Norfolk! Next year would have made fifty years together.

After leaving the Malayan Police, Bruce and Rose came back to the UK in 1959 and spent 5 years living in Sidcup, Kent. He tried his hand at accountancy but found that the attraction of the warmer climes of Malaya too difficult to resist and so in 1964 they and their two sons, David and John, moved back to Malaya where Bruce joined Securicor. He retired from Securicor Malaysia as General Manager and came back to England in 1974. The family settled in East Anglia initially in Harleston and finally in Ipswich. He finished his working career with Securicor UK.

Bruce entered hospital in December 2004 for an operation but due to complications lost the use of his legs. After transferring to Ipswich general hospital in February 2005, he passed away on 26th February. The funeral was well attended by many friends and he is buried in Ipswich Old Cemetery.

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