The story of the two girls who were thrown off of the Clifton Suspension Bridge has resurfaced after the publication of Jane Duffus’ new book ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’ in which it is referenced. The truth behind the incident is almost incomprehensible.
A picture speaks a thousand words, as they say, and that’s certainly the case of an image from the late 1800s which depicts the girls and their saviours. The picture features on the cover of a booklet titled ‘The Police in Late Victorian Bristol’ by Brian Howell. Its captioned as depicting PC 20C Toogood, PC 26C Baker, and PC 90C Wise of the Bristol constabulary along with river pilot James Hazel and sisters Ruby (12 years) and Elsie (3 years).
The sisters were thrown off of the Suspension Bridge on September 1896 and were rescued by Hazel as well as others. Ruby and Elsie were not the first people to survive falling from the bridge but were the first to be thrown.
The sisters were in fact not from Bristol, but rather from Birmingham, living with their parents and three other siblings. Their father, Charles Albert Browne, was a grocer and had moved his business to the address 67 Longmore Green, Birmingham, and records show the business was rapidly fading, according to the British Police History website.
Before the incident, Browne had disappeared and sent a letter from Derby, which indicated he was severely depressed. When he returned home he put the business in the hands of auctioneers. The next day he took Ruby and Elsie for a day out but failed to return.
The family travelled from Birmingham to Bristol, taking a tram to the Hotwells terminus and walking the rest of the way to the Suspension Bridge. PC Wise observed them as they paid the toll to cross the bridge, and according to Ruby, they stayed on the bridge for an hour in the soaking rain.
After an hour, Browne picked Ruby up and threw her over the bridge, quickly followed by her young sister. Fortunately, there were river pilots underneath the bridge who heard the girls’ cries and managed to rescue both of them from the river.
Police officers took the sisters to the Bristol Royal Infirmary on stretchers but they miraculously only had minor injuries. Browne was interview by PC Wise who realised the girls were the ones he had seen earlier, and he was arrested by PCs Toogood and Baker.
The next day, Browne appeared at Bristol Police Magistrates Court and made no statement, except to ask to see his children. Ruby asked her father “Why did you do it?” and Browne replied “Because you were in pain.”
Browne eventually went to trial and was sent to an asylum for the criminally insane. Not much is known about what happened to the sisters after the incident, except that they appeared to move from their address in Birmingham.
More is known about the police officers involved. PC Toogood became an inspector and PC Wise retired as a Constable in 1952 and was interviewed about the event in 1953.