SOME weeks ago, the T&A published an article in which I sought information about a former Bingley resident who I knew only as Miss Bruce, writes JOHN JACKSON.

This arose because I had lately acquired a sketch by a one-time well-known Bingley artist called Robert A Dawson (1874-1948). On the reverse of the framed picture was an inscription in Dawson’s hand which stated, “To illustrate the poem Homeward by Miss Bruce, 1945.”

Robert Dawson’s drawing, illustrating Miss Bruce’s poem (Image: John Jackson)

The appeal provoked a couple of informative responses from Bingley residents:

Jennifer Gregory was able to tell me that Vivien, her late elderly neighbour, often spoke of her friendship with ‘Connie Bruce’. Both were active in the Bingley Women’s Voluntary Service and subsequently with ‘Meals on Wheels’.

A notebook kept by Miss Bruce, and inherited by her friend, indicated that she had also been involved in finding local homes in the Bingley district for Basque child refugees who sought shelter and protection in the UK following the bombing of their homeland during the Spanish Civil War.

Connie Bruce was well known to Ann Walls’s family, and, in fact, she was Godmother to Ann who addressed her as “Auntie Connie”! From information kindly supplied by Miss Walls, and from other sources, I have been able to piece together a few personal details about the elusive Miss Bruce.

Constance Marian Simpson Bruce was born on August 22, 1905. Her parents were John Richard and Ada Ethel Bruce. Her younger sister was Kathleen Simpson Bruce. Her father was a reed, rib, and mould manufacturer supplying requisites to the textile industry. The family lived in a large house in the prosperous Villa Road area of Bingley for many years. A large, colourful stained-glass window, formerly in Eldwick Methodist Church, and now in Eldwick (LEP) Church, commemorates John and Maria Bruce, Connie’s grandparents.

The 1921 National Census shows Connie in full-time residence at Harrogate (Ladies’) College. She appears not to have had a paid occupation although Ann Walls recalls her as being “an independent hard worker.” In the 1962 New Year’s Honours she was awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of her long service as Centre Organiser for the WVS. In later years, Connie divided her time between her two small cottages at the head of Gawthorpe Drive, Bingley, and at Sharrow Head, Tyson’s Row, Robin Hood’s Bay.

Connie Bruce enjoyed writing poetry and in 1994, Caedmon of Whitby published a collection of more than 40 of her compilations. She dedicated the booklet to ‘My sister Kathleen; my friend Fran Storm; & my publisher Cordelia Stamp’, adding the words ‘For all the things most worth while’.

Unfortunately, the verse Homeward was not included among them, and its lines remain unknown, but as Dyson’s drawing indicated, and as Mrs Gregory has suggested, Miss Bruce may have written it to commemorate the return of the Basque children to their homeland following the end of the conflict in Spain, but which may have been delayed until the conclusion World War II in 1945.

Connie Bruce died in February 1997.