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All we knew about Bruce Allison was that he was a South Shields lad that worked for the independent promoters of the north for a few years in the 1960s. That was until Heritage’s Dave Sutherland brought him to our attention in his wonderful series, “Ice Cream, Hot Dogs, Leg Locks and Handbags.”
Dave told us that he met Bruce when briefly, very briefly, pursuing his own wrestling ambitions. “Bruce dressed in a cream track suit and going through some moves with a few of the more experienced lads. He then turned to the newcomers and, singling me out, I thought that he instructed me to get into a clinch and lift him up. No sooner had we engaged that he had me well off the ground and saying that I hadn’t prevented him doing so; repeating that I was to stop him lifting me up we started again in a scrappy tussle until he got me off my feet.”
When he got engaged in 1962 Bruce took on a partner in more ways than one as his fiancee took on the role of his wrestling second.
Wrestling was only one of Bruce’s many interests, Dave told us he was also a poet, singer, songwriter, guitarist, raconteur, artist, painter, music promoter and, briefly, co-owner of an art gallery.
Bruce was his middle name. Donald Bruce Allison was born on 5th August, 1934. A man of many careers he was at one time a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy. Although he spent much of his adult life in Cheltenham, and latterly Yorkshire, this larger than life character was still remembered and talked about in Tyneside for many years following his death
Bruce Allison died on 20th October, 2002.
Page added 20/10/2026
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