NICHOLLS, Hilda - Friends of Horton Cemetery

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b.1894-d.1928

We are indebted to Francesca who was interviewed by a journalist Mick Coyle, as a relative of someone buried in Horton Cemetery.

The Lost Souls investigation visits Horton Cemetery in Surrey

‘I was horrified’: The Mental Asylum graveyard with 9000 bodies SOLD off to private landowner.’

Background

When Hilda Nicholls died in West Park Mental Hospital at the age of just 34 she left behind her husband and their five year-old son. A decade before, Hilda had lost her first husband in the Great War and their infant son the following year. This is Hilda’s tragic story.

Hilda’s father and his family

Hilda was the second of five children born to iron worker Walter Harris Lucas and his wife Emma (née Petch). Walter was born in Birmingham in 1868. His father John was described in the 1871 Census as a ‘steel pen tool maker’. (Steel pens, unlike quills, were more durable, long-lasting and could be mass-produced quickly. Steel pen production involved various processes including cutting, shaping and finishing the nibs, often utilising specialised tools and machinery.)

When the census was taken on the 2^nd of April 1871, John was living at 1, Faraday’s Buildings, Ladywood, Birmingham with his wife Eliza (née Harris) and their children. Eliza was born in Swansea, Wales, in the 2^nd quarter of 1843, the daughter of shoemaker Henry Harris and his wife Ellen (née Wall). Eliza and John were married in Neath, Glamorgan on the 25^th of December 1863 and went on to have six children together. It is not known if the couple ever lived in Wales after their marriage but all six of their children were born in Birmingham:

Arthur Harcourt (born 1^st quarter of 1866)
Walter Harris (born 3^rd quarter of 1868)
Frederick (born 1^st quarter of 1870)
Samuel Benton (born 3^rd quarter of 1873)
Alice (born 1^st quarter of 1875)
William John (born 2^nd quarter of 1877)

By the time of the 1881 Census the family had moved to 108, Oldbury Road in Harborne, Birmingham, and John was working as a fitter at a screw works. (A skilled fitter assembled, installed and maintained machinery or equipment according to specifications.)

By 1889 the family had moved to Cook Street in Coventry. In November of that year the Coventry Times and Warwickshire Journal reported that 19-year-old Walter had been charged with being drunk and assaulting passengers including a police constable on a train from Coventry to Birmingham. Found guilty of ‘a very serious assault’ Walter was sent to prison for three months.

From the 1891 Census we learn that the Lucas family had moved again, this time to 1, Southampton Terrace in Coventry. John was described in the census as an engine fitter. Walter, now aged 21 and still living at home, was working as a turner. (This was a skilled job involving the use of lathes to shape metal and other materials into precise components, often for manufacturing or engineering purposes.)

Hilda’s mother and her family

In the 2^nd quarter of 1891 Walter married Emma Petch in Coventry. Emma was the daughter of labourer Charles Petch and his wife Esther (née Gibbs). Charles was born in Culford, Suffolk in 1841 and Esther in Barnham, Suffolk in 1842. The couple had married in Thingoe (Bury-St-Edmund’s), Suffolk in the 4^th quarter of 1862 and are known to have had six children together:

Henry Willis Herbert (born 2^nd quarter of 1865)
William Adolphus (born 1^st quarter of 1867)
Minnie Beatrice (born 4^th quarter of 1868)
Florence (born 3^rd quarter of 1870)
Emma (born 4^th quarter of 1871)
Edith May (born 2^nd quarter of 1875)

By 1875 the family had moved to 8, Brewery Street in Coventry. On the 21^st of May of that year Emma and her sister Edith May were baptised in Holy Trinity Church in Coventry. By the time of the 1881 Census the Petch family had moved again, this time to 5, Chapel Street in Coventry.

It has not been possible to trace Walter and Emma between their marriage in 1891 and the 1901 Census where we find them living at 4, Halstow Road in Willesden, a property they share with one other family. However, the birth registration records for their five children would suggest that they remained in the Midlands until at least 1899:

Arthur (born 4^th quarter of 189, registered in Coventry)
Hilda (born 1^st quarter of 1894, registered in Coventry)
Matilda (born 1^st quarter of 1898, registered in King’s Norton, Birmingham)
John (born 1^st quarter of 1899, registered in King’s Norton, Birmingham)
Emma (born 1^st quarter of 1900, registered in Hendon, North London)

In the 1901 Census Walter is described as a ‘filler’ in an iron works. (Sometimes called a ‘charger’, a filler was someone whose job it was to fill a blast furnace. This involved unloading raw materials from railway wagons into handcarts and then travelling up to the tops of the furnaces by hoist and tipping the raw materials into the furnace.)

By the time of the next census in 1911 the family had moved to 82, Sixth Avenue, Queen’s Park, Kilburn Lane, Paddington. Walter and his eldest son, Arthur, were both employed by a magnet manufacturer, Walter as an ‘engineer’s fitter’ and Arthur as an ‘electrical condenser builder’. Interestingly, 17-year-old Hilda’s ‘personal occupation’ is given in the census as ‘own account’ and ‘at florist’. However, these words have later been crossed out in a different coloured ink which would suggest that the enumerator made the original entry in error.

Hilda’s first husband and his family

In the 1^st quarter of 1915, Hilda, aged 21, married John James Bloomfield in Willesden. John was born on the 31^st of August 1893, the first child of John Bloomfield (born in Marylebone on the 22^nd of December 1873), and his wife Susannah (née Hale, born in Bermondsey on the 15^th of April 1874). (I have taken John James’s date of birth from the admissions register of Amberley Road School which he attended from the 16^th of March 1903. However, General Records Register records state he was born in the 4^th quarter of 1893.)

At the time of their son’s birth John and Susannah were living at 70, North Street in Marylebone and John was employed as a porter. In the 1901 Census we find the Bloomfields living at 9, Amberley Road in Paddington with their four children. John James has been joined by three siblings:

Arthur William (born 1^st quarter of 1895)
Doris May (born 4^th quarter of 1896)
Florence Ethel (born 4^th quarter of 1898)

John senior is described in the census as a port loader. (A port loader, also known as a stevedore or dockworker, was responsible for loading and unloading cargo on and off ships as well as moving it within the port area.)

By the time of the 1911 Census Susannah had given birth to five more children:

Edwin Ernest (born 2^nd quarter of 1901)
Reginald Stanley (born 3^rd quarter of 1903)
Gladys Elizabeth (born 3^rd of February 1905)
Harry Howorth (born 3^rd of April 1907)
Frederick Charles (born 8^th of January 1909)

We learn from this census that the family was now living at 181, Bravington Road, Paddington. John senior was employed as a house painter and John James was a shop assistant working in a chemist’s.

Killed in action – and a second tragic death

When Hilda and John married four years later, John was already serving in the 1/7^th Battalion, part of the 2^nd London Brigade in the 1^st London Division, having volunteered in August 1914 as soon as war was declared.

Hilda and John’s only child, Leonard Cyril, was born on the 13^th of April 1916 and baptised in St. Mark’s Church Marylebone on the 20^th of April. According to the baptismal register the family were living at 161, Saltram Crescent in Paddington. It is not known if John was able to attend his son’s baptism.

John rose to the rank of Lance Corporal but was tragically killed in action in West Flanders on the 7^th of June 1917. From the National Roll of the Great War we learn that in 1915 John ‘was sent to the Western Front where he took part in many important engagements including those of Ypres, Festubert, Loos, Albert, the Somme and Arras and was killed in the fierce fighting at Messines.’ John was awarded the 1914-15 Star, General Service and Victory medals and his name is engraved on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. (Army records state that John’s residence at the time of his death was 4, Malvern Terrace in Kilburn but I have not been able to confirm this.)

One can only imagine Hilda’s distress at losing her husband so soon after the birth of their child but, sadly, her grief was compounded by the death of Leonard the following year, aged just two. (We do not know the cause of Leonard’s death but he could have succumbed to the Spanish Flu pandemic which affected virtually every part of the world between 1918 and 1920. An estimated 228,000 people died in the UK and, while there is no specific data on how many were children, records indicate a significant increase in infant and young child mortality rates, with increases of 150-300%)

A second marriage and a second child

We next find Hilda in the 1921 Census where she is again living at 161, Saltram Crescent in Paddington, now the home of her younger sister Matilda and her husband Charles Avory and their two children. Hilda’s occupation is given as ‘sorter, Crusade of Rescue’ and she is working from home. (The Crusade of Rescue was the original name for the Catholic Children’s Society. It was a charitable organisation founded in 1859 to help destitute Catholic children in the Westminster diocese. It initially provided residential care, running orphanages and homes. I have not been able to discover what Hilda’s work as a ‘sorter’ for the charity would entail.)

In 1923 Hilda, now aged 28, married 30 year-old taxi driver Frederick William Nicholls. We know from the 1939 Register that Frederick was born on the 7^th of August 1892, the first child of taxi driver Frederick Nicholls and his wife Adelaide Theresa (née Hale). (It is interesting that the mother of Hilda’s first husband and the mother of her second husband both had the same maiden name, Hale. Is it possible they were related?)

Frederick senior was born in about 1867 and Adelaide was born in the 4^th quarter of 1871. They were married in Paddington in the 3^rd quarter of 1892. After Frederick William, Adelaide gave birth to four more children:

Adelaide Caroline (born 4^th quarter of 1896)
Elizabeth Emily (born 3^rd quarter of 1898)
Charles (born 4th quarter of 1900)
Louise Catherine (born 2nd quarter of 1902)

In the 1921 Census we find the family living at 11-12 Paddington Green, Paddington. This was also the home of the Paddington Radical Working Men’s Club where Frederick senior and Adelaide were employed as stewards.

Hilda and Frederick were married on the 24^th of February 1923 in St Simon’s Church in Paddington. The couple’s address is given in the parish register as 1, Fordingley Road in West Kilburn. Hilda gave birth to the couple’s only child, Frederick Charles Walter, on the 30^th of August, 1923. He was baptised on the 17^th of October 1923 in the Church of St Luke the Evangelist in West Kilburn. According to the baptismal register the family was living at 161, Saltram Crescent in Paddington at the time.

Admission to West Park Hospital and death

Unfortunately, whatever happiness Hilda was able to find with her new husband and son was short-lived. At some point after 1923 Hilda was admitted to West Park Mental Hospital in Epsom where she died six years later, on the 10^th of October 1928 aged just 34. She was buried in Horton Cemetery in plot 604a.

We do not know the nature or severity of Hilda’s mental health problems or, indeed, when they began – could she have been suffering from post-natal depression? – but they must surely have been exacerbated by the death of her first husband in battle and losing her two-year old son shortly afterwards.

Contact with Francesca – Hilda’s great granddaughter

We are indebted to Francesca who was interviewed by a journalist Mick Coyle, as a relative of someone buried in Horton Cemetery. You will find a link below.

The Lost Souls investigation visits Horton Cemetery in Surrey

To quote Francesca from the interview,

“There are 9000 people buried there, this is sacred ground and it doesn’t look very sacred….they were people, they are people. If Hilda hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here. She just deserves respect.”

Francesca explained to our Horton researcher that she believes strongly that her great grandmother might have been neurodivergent and that there may have been behaviours related to this that led Hilda to be sent to Horton.

We know from her death certificate that Hilda died very young of a brain haemorrhage. Francesca suggests that perhaps some of the treatment her great grandmother received might have led to this early death.

Francesca says, in her interview,

“Her whole life she was made to feel ashamed of, she was hidden away, and that’s how she died and now she’s been buried in a place like this. It’s like she’s being disrespected in death as she was in life.”

Francesca says that her family did not speak of her great grandmother; there are no photos or family records of her.

Again, The Friends of Horton Cemetery are grateful to Francesca for contributing in this way. We know from Facebook that her interview impacted on people with more people now following our page on a regular basis.

Thank you, Francesca, for being the voice for Hilda.