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Louisa was born in the Fulham registration district during the December quarter of 1889. The daughter of James Bransgrove and Ellen his wife nee Plumridge. They had married on 6th August 1871 at St Stephen’s Church, Shepherds Bush. James gave his occupation as a Plasterer as was his father Charles. Ellen’s father William was deceased, he had been a Labourer.
Louisa was baptised on 24th November 1889 at St Luke’s Church, Shepherds Bush. She was the eighth of nine children.
Siblings
- Herbert 1873 – 1959
- Emma 1874 – 1936
- Ethel 1877 – 1971
- Ellen 1879 – 1974
- Ada 1881 – 1944
- Charles 1884 – 1884
- Daisy 1887 – 1949
- Louisa 1889 – 1918
- May 1894 – 1954
I had not been able to find the birth registration for Herbert. A fellow reviewer looked at alternative spellings and Herbert was recorded as Bramsgrove in the March Quarter for 1873, his Mother’s maiden name Plumridge. All the girls in the family seem to have worked as Laundresses.
On the 1911 census there is a James Bramsgrove age 63, married and a Bricklayers labourer, his birthplace given as Hammersmith, in the Workhouse at Saffron Walden. Why so far from his home or did the workhouse at Saffron Walden take the ‘overflow’ of inmates from the London workhouses?
Ellen and Louisa’s sister May are living in one room in Shepherds Bush. Ellen is a Laundress and May working as a Factory Hand in an Electric Light Making Company. Ellen records that she has been married for 40 years and has had nine children, eight of whom were still living.
From the records available it appears that Louisa had Epilepsy as a young adult, hence her admissions to the Workhouse infirmary and then transfer to the Epileptic Colony at Chalfont St Peter on 7th June 1915.
This was a purpose built establishment at a farm in Chalfont St Peter. There were individually designed homes for men, women and children. One of the chief aims was to do away with an institutional feeling, It is the centre for the Epilepsy Society.
I have been unable yet to find Louisa’s transfer from Chalfont to St Ebba’s in Epsom where she died on 21st April 1918. Her cause of death was given as “Epilepsy many years. No PM” (i.e. No post mortem).
We know so little about this young lady and her relationship with her siblings; it is hoped that her medical notes may be available to build a more complete picture.
