Esther Bruce was born in Fulham, west London to a Guyanese labourer and his English wife. They were the only mixed-race family living in their tight-knit working-class community. After leaving school, Esther earned a living as a seamstress. When the war broke out in 1939, her father tried to persuade her to leave England and stay with his relatives in Guyana, but Esther preferred to remain in London and face what came. In the early part of the war, women were encouraged to volunteer for war work, but in 1941 it became clear that more women were needed, and would have to be mobilised. Esther was required to leave her job as a seamstress to register for war work. In addition to working as a ward cleaner in Fulham Hospital then Brompton Hospital, Esther undertook duties as a fire guard or fire watcher.
This position came about as a result of the night of Sunday 29 December 1940, when the City of London was devastated by incendiary bombs. They were 18 inches long and weighed only a couple of pounds, but filled with highly combustible chemicals, and dropped in clusters to spread fires. The fires would light the target for the German bombers. Soon after it had begun to burn – and while it was still possible for an individual to put it out with sand, or a stirrup pump – it could explode, showering anyone trying to put it out with magnesium. When the fire watchers' scheme began in January 1941 it was made compulsory to have a person or persons on guard in buildings for twenty-four hours (in “prescribed areas”) to put out incendiary bombs and to call for help. This proved difficult for many establishments to staff and this led the Government to implement a compulsory scheme of fire watching.
Armed with a stirrup pump, a helmet and an armband labelled Fire Guard, Esther’s work involved standing on the roofs of Fulham and Brompton hospitals during air raids, and helping to put out any fires caused by incendiaries. It was a dangerous job, and many women who had not enlisted in the armed forces volunteered. She said: ‘It was dangerous work, and I didn’t really want to do it, but when the air raids continued, we knew we would all have to do our bit, and pitch in.’
This information is from Stephen Bourne's books Mother Country: Britain's Black Community on the Home Front 1939-45 (The History Press, 2010) , The Motherland Calls: Britain's Black Servicemen and Women 1939-45 (The History Press, 2012) and War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939-48 (Jacaranda Books, 2018).
SECOND WORLD WAR CONTENTS:
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Profiles People
Living through Conflict
A Fight For Freedom
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Stories
Commemoration and Legacy
Artistic Responses to Conflict