Police Constable Bruce

Police-constable Alexander Carmichael Bruce is mentioned on page 121 of the book "Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia."

Ann Douglass, 2, York-terrace, Clapham-road, was charged with being drunk and disorderly, and causing a crowd to assemble in High-street, Clapham. - Police-constable Bruce said the prisoner had a baby in her arms and it was bruised by the falls, as she dropped it several times. It was not her own baby, and she refused to state to whom it belonged. - Mrs. Louisa Wallis, the landlady of the house where the prisoner lodged, came into the court with the child in her arms. She said the prisoner was a regular brute to the child. She had been drunk for a fortnight since she had been in witness's house. She had also threatened witness, and she had been obliged to keep out of her way. She did not know to whom the child belonged. She had attended to the baby, but she did not intend to take it back with her. She further said that the prisoner beat the baby very much yesterday. - Mr. Bridge directed that the baby should be taken to the workhouse, and ordered a summons to issue against the prisoner for assaulting it. - The prisoner was then remanded, and the magistrate granted Mrs. Wallis 2s. 6d. out of the poor-box for her trouble in taking the baby to the workhouse. - Several women in court kissed the baby, and applied some strong epithets to the prisoner as she was being removed.

Source: The Wandsworth and Battersea District Times, and Journal of the County of Surrey, Saturday June 22, 1872