Esther Bruce

Josephine Esther Bruce (29 November 1912 – 17 July 1994) was a British seamstress living in London. Her autobiography, Aunt Esther's Story published in 1991 and co-authored with her adopted nephew Stephen Bourne, was one of the first books to document the life of a black working-class woman in Britain.

Early life

Esther Bruce was born on 29 November 1912 at 15 Dieppe Street, Fulham, in west London.

For many years, Esther and her father were among the few black members of their working-class community where she attended North End Road School, Fulham. A few years later, she was sacked by Barker's department store on Kensington High Street for "being coloured". Her angry father raised a complaint with Barker's the very next day and wrote to his local MP, but the complaint was taken no further.

For this, Bourne and Bruce were nominated for the Arts Council of Great Britain's Raymond Williams Prize for Community Publishing. Photographs from the book were included as part of the Museum of London's The Peopling of London exhibition that toured around various venues in London, including the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.

The writer Simon Reade described Bruce's story as:"A personal yet archetypal chapter in the history of working-class London, one which is usually overlooked in the grand catalogue of great men. It should inspire young people to explore the thoughts and observations of an older generation of family and friends, thus discovering shared experiences throughout our multi-racial, culturally diverse metropolis".

Bruce died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 17 July 1994. Her ashes were scattered on her parents' unmarked grave in Fulham Cemetery.

In 2020, Stephen Bourne included Bruce in his book Under Fire - Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press).