Left: Clement Bruning - Administration Officer and N.H.Q. speaker
Clement Bruning, was born in 1913 in Southend-on-Sea to a German father and an English mother.
Originally attached to the B.U.F.'s Ealing branch, he was brought up a Catholic and was educated at St. Benedict's Priory, Ealing. By profession he was a commercial traveller.
He had two brothers, Peter and Guy, who were also active B.U.F. members. They were both imprisoned without charge in May 1940 under Defence Regulation 18B.
Clement Bruning was well thought of in the Blackshirt movement. He had joined the B.U.F. at its inception in 1932 and had made a prominent place for himself by his considerable powers of oratory, his hard work and his loyalty to the principles of Fascism. In 1939, aged 26, he was chosen to be the Blackshirt Parliamentary candidate for Wood Green in the 1940 General Election.
In 1938, Clement Bruning acquired a café at 243 Green Street, Bethnal Green. His new dining room enterprise quickly established itself as a favoured Blackshirt rendezvous.
Clement Bruning outside his café at 243 Green Street, Bethnal Green.
A cup of tea could be bought for 11⁄2d. Poor quality photo from Blackshirt, April 1938
A cup of tea could be bought for 11⁄2d. Poor quality photo from Blackshirt, April 1938
With his place of residence and place of work now at Bethnal Green, Clement Bruning became attached to the Bethnal Green branch of the B.U.F.
Bethnal Green was one of the largest B.U.F. branches in the country and several other B.U.F. members owned shop premises in Green Street, such as Jack Beale who had a newsagents and tobacconists shop at 253 Green Street. Another was Bernard Engbarth, a German baker, whose bakery shop was situated at 178 Green Street. Alfred Nelson, the proprietor of a print shop at 223 Green Street was another active member, who utilised his shop to print propaganda material for the branch.
Another shopkeeper, who was either a BUF member or supporter, was Robert Walsh, the proprietor of a cycle shop at 100 Green Street. Then there was the manager of George Carter's grocery stores at 217 Green Street, who was said to be a local BUF officer, who was 'inciting Fascists to intimidate shopkeepers, especially his near rivals in business.'
Sidney Albert Rootsey, a butcher with premises at 263 Green Street, stood as one of two BUF candidates in South Ward for the November 1937 Council elections while William Phillips, who ran a hairdresser's shop at 176 Green Street, stood as a BUF candidate for the East ward.
B.U.F. members were often seen selling fascist newspapers outside Jewish shops in Green Street to intimidate the Jewish shop owners.
With so much Blackshirt activity in the area, buying a café in Green Street seemed like a sound investment for Bruning, although he wasn't without competition. Local Mosleyites could often be found at a café further down the road at 42 Green Street, owned by an Italian shopkeeper named Vincenzo Nardone.
As well as being an active member of British Union's Bethnal Green branch, Clement Bruning was a member of staff at B.U.F. N.H.Q. where he was engaged as Administration Officer and N.H.Q. speaker.
For example, this advert featuring Clement Bruning was placed in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, dated 12th February 1937.
“Blackshirt meeting at Buller Hall, Exeter, 19th Feb, 1937 at 8.00 pm (doors open at 7.15pm) Speaker: Clement Bruning” - Buller Hall is located on Cowick street, St Thomas.He also wrote articles for the Party newspaper, The Blackshirt, for example, "Fascism In The East End", Blackshirt, October 4, 1935 and "Those Kill-Joys Must Go - National Socialism Scorns Bourgeois Hypocrisy", Blackshirt, August 28, 1937.
Information about Clement Bruning becomes patchy from 1939 onwards. He was in Germany when war was declared and Special Branch received 'unconfirmed information' that Bruning was broadcasting Nazi propaganda from German radio stations which was clearly untrue.
The facts are that in 1939 Bruning was working in Frankfurt for a German News Service. Following the declaration of War he was promptly interned in Wuelzberg Castle along with 100 other British detainees. It's known that one day the internees were lined up for inspection by a visiting Gestapo officer. When he reached an internee believed to be Bruning the Gestapo officer stopped and asked "Are you Jewish?" in a provocative manner. This resulted in Bruning writing to the Foreign Office in London for proof of his Aryan ancestry.
Because Bruning's father was German, under Nazi laws this made Clement Bruning an 'Auslander', a German citizen living abroad and his British citizenship was disregarded. As such, he was then required to join the German armed services and fight for the Fatherland.
Bruning's loyalty was to Britain and he refused to fight for Germany against the country he loved. As a result he was treated as a conscientious objector and sent to a concentration camp in Poland where in 1941 he died of Tuberculosis.
Comrade newsletter, August/September 1988, states that Bruning is buried in the Commonwealth plot at Cracow Rakowicki Cemetery, Poland. The exact location is Plot 6, Row A, Grave 5.
A search of the Cemetery records lists him under civilian war dead. It's recorded that he died on 17 August 1942, aged 31.
The Cracow Rakowicki Cemetery website states that:
"At the end of the Second World War, the graves service of the British Army of the Rhine gathered together Commonwealth graves from all over Poland into three cemeteries, this being the largest. Those buried here died while prisoners of war during the German occupation, most of the graves come from the cemetery at the large camp at Lamsdorf, Stalag VIIIB (after 1943 known as Stalag 344), where there was a hospital of 450 beds used only for Commonwealth prisoners."There is no information in Bruning's security file, held at the Public Records Office in London, on either his imprisonment or his death.
References:
East London for Mosley by Thomas P. Linehan, published by Frank Cass and Co., Newbury House, 900 Eastern Avenue, London, EG2 7HH, 1996
Blackshirt, October 4, 1935
Blackshirt, August 28, 1937
Blackshirt, April, 1938
Blackshirts in Devon by Todd Gray, published by The Mint Press; 1st edition, 21 Sept. 2006
Public Record Office, London - file PRO HO144/21429/100-101 quoted by Thomas Linehan in East London for Mosley.
Comrade, Newsletter of the Friends of Oswald Mosley, no. 14, August/September 1988
Blackshirts-On-Sea by J.A.Booker, published by Brockingday Publications, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3XX, 1999
