A rather gruesome concealed pregnancy at #Sticklepath for #OnePlaceTragedies

On February 17, 2021February 10, 2021 By HelenFinchIn Uncategorized1 Comment

The Western Times – Tuesday 15 November 1904 reported a ‘STICKLEPATH SENSATION’. (Complete transcript, photo not from the paper).

Supposed Case of Concealment of Birth.

Mr. Prickman (coroner) held an inquest, at Sticklepath, on Saturday, relative to the finding of dead body the day before. Mr. Thomas White, gardener, deposed that on Friday he discovered the body of a female infant, wrapped in a piece of rag, and placed just beneath the grass behind a tombstone, about 16 feet from the entrance gate of the Cemetery. He communicated with P.C. Berry, who removed the remains to the Taw River Hotel.

*Coroners court often met at the local public house, as here. Chapman postcard.*

Dr. Davies, of Okehampton, said he had made a post-mortem examination of the body, which was in a bad state of decomposition. The child was fully developed, 20 ½ inches length. It was not born alive. There was no external marks of violence about the body, and no bones were broken, but there was evidence of general inattention at birth. The lungs had not been inflated.

The child had evidently been born more than three weeks, and certainly under two months. The Coroner said, under the circumstances, the jury could not return a verdict, but they could make a memorandum to the effect that The body which the jury had viewed that of a female child, born not more than two months, and not less than three weeks since.” Mr. A. G. Finch was the foreman of the jury.

Comments – Pregnancies can be denied or perhaps some women are not aware of their pregnancy (about 1 in 400 women are said to be 5 months pregnant before they realise). I have certainly seen a young teenager who concealed their pregnancy and presented in A&E with ‘abdominal pains’ shortly before giving birth.

The pregnancy in 1904 must have been concealed and then when the child was born dead, the birth was concealed. It seems most likely that this would be an unmarried mother, a married woman whose husband had been away or possibly the result of rape or incest. The mother could seek no advice or help. The Offences against the Person Act 1861 meant that every person involved in the endeavour to conceal a birth, regardless of whether the baby was still born or died later, was guilty of a Misdemeanour and could be given a prison sentence of up to two years with hard labour.

The contraceptive pill first became available, to married women only, on the NHS in 1961.

When heartache turns to happiness – for #52ancestors Valentine

On February 12, 2021March 16, 2021 By HelenFinchIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The back of a photo postcard has two verses hand written on it. The first a Vera Lynn song, the second perhaps more personal?

Yours ’til the stars lose their glory
Yours ’til the birds fail to sing
Yours to the end of life’s journey* (original word was Story*)
This pledge to you dear, I bring

Yours in the grey of December
Here or on far distant shores

I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you
How could I, when I was born to be JUST YOURS

Signed “G’ from Gladys Cooper nee Underhill whose photo is on the other side.

It’s hard sometimes to realise, that you are half the world away. When to you my thoughts are turning, at the closing of the day. When the tasks are laid aside, and quietness steals upon the heart You seem to stand beside me dear, so near that all my fears depart. Then I am strangely comforted, and life takes on a brighter hue.

In the secret world of dreams it seems I talk and walk with you. And this must suffice until the time when you and more come back to me When heartache turns to happiness, and dreaming, to reality. G

I like to think her husband Jim took this little postcard or its twin with him in his breast pocket when he went to war. But then he went missing. It is a story of 16 months heartache, Gladys not knowing where her husband was. The newspaper takes up the story. (All articles held by The British Library, accessed via Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk February 2021). The Western Times on Friday 27 March 1942 tells us:

We next find in the Western Times on Friday 25 June 1943:

Whilst he is said to be in good health, we know many died in P.O.W.camps and all suffered hunger and many deprivations. What a relief must have been felt when an air mail arrived from Australia saying he was safe. Gladys will have been over-joyed. The Western Times – Friday 05 October 1945:

I wonder how many times Gladys had sat staring at her wedding photo during that long 16 months.

22 Sept 1935 James Cooper and Gladys Underhill

#SticklepathOne, #Sticklepath, #OnePlaceStudies, #OnePlaceJoys, #WWII,

Double #OnePlaceTragedies

On February 10, 2021 By HelenFinchIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Our saga of Thomas Finch and family continues. Last week we heard about the Coroner’s case when Victor Thomas Finch drowned aged 22 months. Happier times followed when Gladys Lena was born in 1897 and then Leslie George in 1900.

Sadly the newspapers tell of further tragic circumstances 10 years later.

The Western Times on Friday 25 November 1910 reported:

The British Library Board accessed via British Newspapers Archive online February 2021

It paints a touching picture of the relationship with his sister. So many wreaths for a small coffin. I need to investigate further, as, for example, I don’t know who was at Walnut Road, Chester or Friendship but these appear to be important, as they are listed first.

Such reports are ideal for genealogists, with many FANs named. (The FAN Club abbreviation was developed by Elizabeth Shown Mills, a highly respected genealogist and relates to cluster research. When investigating an ancestor, their FANs or Friends, Neighbours and Associates can tell us a great deal about their situation, social status, occupation etc. ).

The brief Western Times report of a week earlier – Friday 18 November 1910, written before the funeral, adds a different slant:

Clearly Thomas and Annie had been very caring parents, but this hints at the ‘delicate’ nature of Leslie. Taken together with the photograph I suggest Leslie had Down’s Syndrome.

In 1866 Dr John Langdon Down first identified a group of patients with certain characteristics. In 1959, it was discovered that it is a genetic condition due to an extra chromosome (Trisomy 21). It wasn’t until 1965 that the World Health Organisation adopted the term Down’s syndrome. I don’t know when the term came into common usage or if the syndrome would have been recognised by a village GP in 1900 – 1910.

Leslie had been poorly for some time and his death certificate shows he died of consumption, which is TB or tuberculosis. Three generations of the family at least were affected by this disease. This is an image from the memorial card:

The two brothers, Victor Thomas and Leslie George Finch, are buried in the same grave in Sticklepath with their memorials on either side of the short stone.

Move the arrow side to side to see front and back of the gravestone.

The 1911 census states the facts as cold statistics. Three children born alive, two who have died. One still living. Childhood deaths were still fairly common. Daughter Gladys aged 14 continues at school. Annie Standlake domestic servant has been with the family for over 10 years.

England & Wales Census 1911 accessed through Ancestry

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Gladys Lena Finch

We finish on a happier note –

Gladys survived and later married William Gater Heard and had children. John Heard, a very tall man in shorts and sandals, came to visit us in Sticklepath when I was young. He brought a family tree he had been working on for us to see.

Western Times – Wednesday 25 May 1921
Marriages

HEARD – FINCH On May 24th at the Parish Church South Tawton, by the vicar (Rev E.F.Ball). William Gater Heard, eldest son of Mrs W.J. Heard, Exmouth to Gladys Lena, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. Finch, Sticklepath, Okehampton.