Louisa Mary Baynham (1886-1920)
Louisa Mary was born at Walsall in 1886.
She died at Walsall in 1920.
Louisa Mary (known as ‘Lillie’) was born at Walsall on 29th March 1886, at 26 Oxford Street, Pleck where her parents Arthur William and Elizabeth were living with their two young children Arthur (4) and Nellie (3); she was baptised as ‘Louisa’ on 17th April 1887 at St Paul’s Church, Walsall. At this time her father was working as a labourer at a railway station.
By 1891, Lillie was now 5 and growing up with the family’s other young children – Arthur (9), Nellie (7) and Tom (1) – plus a lodger Eliza (26) at 26 Oxford Street. Her father was now working as a general labourer.
By the time of the 1901 census, Lillie was 15 and still living at home with her parents and four siblings – Arthur (19), Tom (11), Marshall ‘William‘ (3) and Dora (1) – at 26 Oxford Street. Nellie (17) had left home and was working as a housemaid locally.
Lillie was working as tailoress; her eldest brother Arthur and her father were both working on the railways.
Another brother Harry was born in 1903 and around this time the family appears to have moved to 12 Oxford Street, next door to where her eldest brother Arthur was living with his young family at number 14..
Sadly, two members of her family then died of tuberculosis at home: her father Arthur William died in 1905, aged 49, and her sister Nellie, who had been working away from home as a housemaid, died the following year, aged 23.
Around this time, possibly 1906-07, Elizabeth moved the family to 151 Prince Street, Pleck which would remain the family home for more than 60 years.
In 1910 Lillie also suffered a bout of tuberculosis and spent two months in a convalescent home in Weston-super-Mare.
Her family circumstances, including the deaths of her father and older sister, combined with her own ill health appear to have had a devastating effect on Lillie.
In late 1910, aged 24, she was admitted to the Stafford County Asylum at Burntwood – the Lunacy Patients Admissions Register shows her date of admission as 30th December 1910.
Lillie’s asylum story includes her medical record, which contains details of her condition and reports of her progress towards recovery.
Then, in early 1911 while she was still in the asylum, her brother Tom died suddenly, aged 21, of intestinal problems (his death was the subject of an inquest).
So the 1911 census shows Lillie aged 25 living at 151, Prince Street, Pleck with her widowed mother Elizabeth (50) and three younger siblings – William (13), who was now working as an apprentice whip maker; Dora (11), who was at school; and Harry (7), who does not appear to be at school and in the Infirmity column was recorded as having had ‘hip troubles at the age 6’.
They also had a boarder – Thomas Reeves (61) who was a widower, working as a puddler in a puddling forge.
Lillie was shown working as a sewing machinist in tailoring, but was described in the Infirmity column as ‘lunatic’ – she had yet to be discharged from the asylum at Burntwood.
So she was also recorded on the 1911 census at Burntwood, where her position at the institution was ‘patient’ and her infirmity ‘lunatic’.
Her occupation was ‘tailoress’ and the industry in which she worked was ‘clothing manufacture’.
When discharged from the asylum on 9th May 1911, she was classified as ‘recovered’.
However, she then suffered three more tragic losses: her eldest brother Arthur died in February 1913, aged 31 (in a work-related accident which was the subject of an inquest); in April 1915 her brother William (my grandfather), aged17, enlisted in the Army and left home to train as a gunner before going to fight in France; and then in October 1915 her mother Elizabeth died of a stroke, aged 54 – she died at home and Lillie is shown as the informant on her death certificate.
So until the end of the First World War, Lillie would have been living at 151 Prince Street with just her young invalid brother Harry (13) and perhaps occasional visits from William when he returned injured from the Front.
Lillie died of tuberculosis and haemoptysis at home on 3rd March 1920, aged 33.
Notes:
- Louisa’s name was registered as ‘Mary Louisa Baynam’
- Lillie’s age is recorded as 32; in fact she was 33
- the informant was William Baynham, which confirms that Marshall William returned to live at 151 Prince Street after the First World War
Census and Lunacy Patients Admissions Register extracts – www.ancestry.co.uk