Edward Joseph Bruce enlisted in the AIF on the 3rd of September 1915. A horse breaker before he joined up, Edward embarked on HMAT Wandilla from Brisbane on the 31st of January 1916 as a reinforcement for the 2nd Light Horse Regiment.
The ‘Wandilla’ was initially a steam ship operated by the Adelaide Steamship Company between Fremantle and Sydney was acquired by the military firstly as a troop ship and later as a hospital ship.
His mother, Mary Bruce, lived in Murwillumbah and in July 1918, received a letter from the Base Records Office at Victoria Barracks in Melbourne, advising her that her son had been awarded the Military Medal.