Louisa PRICE
Researchers hate to admit defeat but this case proved particularly difficult: there is very little information to go on.
When Louisa Price was admitted to Hoxton Street infirmary in Shoreditch in December 1894, she was homeless. She was said to be aged 50, married, and a needlewoman. Unfortunately that is all the information that we have for her: no address, no names of relatives, no visitors. We have not been able to identify her with any certainty.
Six months later, in July 1895, Louisa was still in the infirmary, on the lunatic ward, and showing signs of profound depression.
“She is very low spirited & despondent, & gets quite confused in her mind after asking a few questions. She seems to have lost all memory. She said she had a husband living, & then said it was her mother’s husband. She desires to commit suicide. She says she does not wish to live.”
“Alice Page, lunatic attendant, says the patient is very suicidal & noisy — She was screaming yesterday to one of the nurses to come & drown her — she is very melancholy & despondent at all times.”
In July 1894 she was ordered to be admitted to Fisherton asylum in Wiltshire, the London asylums being full, and she remained there until she was transferred to Manor in June 1899.
Louisa died at Manor from broncho-pneumonia on 27 October 1899, and was the third person to be buried at Horton Cemetery.