Bruce Hudson was the only son of Mr Robert Inglis Hudson and Mrs Rosa Kate Hudson from Balwyn. He joined Carey at the age of eight in June 1929 and remained at the School for nine and half years, leaving in December 1938. Bruce was a keen participant in sport at Carey and was a member of the Athletics Team and First Football Team from 1936–1938 and of the First Cricket Team in 1938. 

After leaving school, he joined the staff of Australian Estates Co. Then in July 1941, he enlisted in the RAAF.  He left Australia in November of that year for Rhodesia where he gained his ‘wings’. He was later transferred to the Middle East, joining the 451 Squadron in Egypt. The Squadron supported British Commonwealth operations in the Western desert from July 1941 until January 1942.

By the time Bruce arrived in the Middle East, the war in Europe had been raging for more than three years. Germany occupied most of Europe, Britain was under serious attack and conflict on the eastern front was in its early days. Australian troops were serving bravely in the Middle East and our airmen, including a number of old Carey students, were serving in the Royal Australian Air Force, flying sorties over occupied territories. 

On 21 April 1943, Bruce wrote to his former Headmaster at Carey, Mr HG Steele, about meeting up with one of his former classmates, Ian Treloar, in Egypt:

 By the way I met up with Ian Treloar about 3 months ago, he was well at the time but rather sick of sitting around. He had rather bad luck — had hardly flown at all since leaving Australia, however I should think he would be settled in a squadron by now. 

Bruce and Ian were not only classmates but had been team members of the Carey First Cricket, Athletics and Football Teams from 1936–1938.  Sadly, just four months after Bruce wrote this letter, Ian Treloar was killed flying in a battle over the Mediterranean.  He was 21 years old.

Many other Carey sportsmen also lost their lives in the war. One photo, in particular, taken on the great occasion of Carey winning the AGSV Athletics Championship in 1936, shows four Carey Grammarians who lost their lives in WWII — Ross Hutton, Bruce Hudson, Ian Treloar and Ralph Halkyard.

Bruce Hudson writes at the end of his letter to HG Steele:

 I received my commission about a week ago; it was backdated to January so I am in the money right now.  Will most likely be going to Alexandria or Cairo to get my officer’s kit. I am very pleased the School has been doing so well lately — all the best for the football season this year.

Bruce Hudson did not go to Alexandria or Cairo to collect his officer’s kit.  Three days after writing this letter, on 24 April 1943, his plane was shot down in a battle over the Mediterranean. 

He was 21 years old.

John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia from 1941–1945, later wrote to Albert Joyce, Auditor General of Australia from 1946–1951 and father of an Old Carey Grammarian, Eric Joyce, who was killed in World War II:

War is a frightful calamity.  Its general tragedy sweeps into the homes of so many and when its cost includes a loved son the general becomes so personal that it borders on intrusion to just proffer sentiments of grief for those who grieve.

Yet it cannot all be loss. There is pride in the duty the dear dead completed to the last full measure of devotion. And there is hope that example will reproduce in the living the graces of he who has been taken away.  Maybe we do not know enough of life and death to talk or write about it, but I feel the dead are not dead to those who loved them and in whose living there will be incorporated some part of that unbreakable affection which makes a family the earthly locale of what we mean by heaven.