David Banks OSBORNE

David Banks OSBORNE

Early years

David Banks Osborne was born in Southwark on 5 June 1851, to parents Thomas Emanuel Osborne, a pavier (or paviour), and his wife Sarah Banks. He was their fourth child.

Throughout the 1850s and 1860s the family lived in rooms at 3 William Street in Southwark.

By 1871 David, aged 20, was working away in Kidderminster as a factory engineer.

Marriage, children, and tragedy

Back in London in 1876 and working as an engine driver, David married Caroline Edith Elizabeth Munday at St George the Martyr church in Borough High Street. By 1881 they had three children and had moved across the river to Rackham Street in Kensington. They would have three more children before Caroline’s early death in 1890, aged just 35.

The children were:

• David (1876) born in Southwark
• George Harry (1877) born in Southwark
• Ellen Sarah (1879) born in Southwark
• Walter Stanley (1881) born in Kensington
• Caroline Love (1882) born in Ellacombe (Torquay), Devon
• Olive (1886) born in Lambeth

David’s wife Caroline died from pulmonary tuberculosis at Knowle Green in Staines on 30 April 1890. Her mother Sarah Hammond was present at the death.

David was left a widower, with 6 children aged 4 to 14 that he was unable to look after.

The break up of the family

11 months later, by the time of the 1891 Census, David was living on his own in lodgings at 43 Compton Street in Kensington. So, where were the children?

• The eldest son, David, was in the St Giles Christian Mission Boys Home in Greville Street, Hatton Garden
• George was in Carter’s home for destitute boys, 49 High Street, Clapham
• Ellen, Walter, Caroline and Olive were boarded out with a Walker family in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Insanity

Medical records suggest that David began to be tormented by “strange voices” towards the end of 1892:

‘He has the delusion that he hears voices of strange people, at all times, and in all places, which talk to him, and advise him, to move his children from the home they are now in, and he is compelled to constantly change his rooms to get rid of this annoyance: but that he is followed everywhere that these voices also get talking about his work at the Savings Bank’

(We are not sure about this reference to his work at the Savings Bank. In other places it is quoted as the Post Office, but the same records list his occupation as engine driver.)

In March 1893 he was found to be of unsound mind and admitted to the asylum at Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, the London asylums being full at that time. There he stayed for 6 years before being transferred to the newly built Manor asylum in Epsom in 1899.

When David was sent to the asylum in 1893, his sons David and George were working and able to support themselves, and daughter Ellen was in service at 28 Princes Gate, but the three younger children were placed in Marlesford Lodge school in Hammersmith. From there, Walter was apprenticed to a tailor for 5 years from 1897, but ran away several times and joined the army in 1899, serving in the Boer war; Caroline was placed in service with the same tailor, but left and went to live with an aunt.  (In the 1901 census, Ellen, Caroline and Olive were all living with their aunt Sarah Whebley in Chertsey.)

On arrival at Manor in 1899, the case notes record that David was:

“rambling garrulous & delusional. Says he hears hissing voices in his ears which he thinks are caused by a large tape worm coming from his intestines into his stomach. It also affects his sight & loosens his teeth. It is like a glowworm & throws a dampness around it as a glowworm throws light.“

David was transferred to Horton when it opened in March 1902 and was there for 12 years before returning to Manor in 1914:

“Very pleased with himself, and his transfer here – Grandiose ideas about his capability for work, and his excellence as a workman.
He also has hosts of friends in influential positions – The governor of Madagascar being one of these – Memory of recent events good – Converses without any difficulty or hesitation for expression of ideas.”

David in 1914

“He is very weak minded. He has little insight into his condition. Says he is fit for discharge & wants a job in the Engineer’s Department. Employs himself usefully.

Fair health. Does useful work in the ward. There are no new features developed in this case. Previous notes describing his (condition) still apply.” 

Death

When Manor was requisitioned as a war hospital in 1916, David was transferred to Long Grove, where he died from chronic Bright’s disease on 1 March 1918.

Visitors

The 1899-1902 Manor address book page for David records visits from his brother George, “sister & mother” Mrs Pickering (see below) and one of his daughters listed as “Miss Osborne”.

David’s page in the 1914 Manor address book lists a number of visitors but there are no notes of visit dates.

• Son — ? Osborne, 9 Tunstall Road, Brixton (letter returned undelivered in 1914)
  Brother — George Osborne, 87 Windus Road, Stamford Hill (This was George’s address in the 1911 census)
• Mother — Pickering, 18 Lancaster Road, Notting Hill (This is a puzzle. We think David’s mother Sarah likely died in 1893 aged 82)
• Friend — Violet Wilkins, 45 Surrey Square, Old Kent Road
• Sister — Pickering, 54 Tavistock Crescent, Westbourne Park (In 1911 this address was the home of Charles Pickering and his wife Elizabeth, who must be David’s sister Elizabeth Banks Osborne. We have not been able to trace their marriage)
• Nephew — Mr. Pickering, 18 Lancaster Road, Notting Hill
• Niece — Alice Jackson, 2 Eastwood Road, Bramley, Guildford (Alice was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Pickering, and her mother’s maiden name was Osborne. She had married Julian Jackson in 1905)
• Friends — Mrs. C. Shipping, “Hazel Bank”, Chessington Road, West Ewell
  and Lydia A. Carver, 18 Chessington Rd.,West Ewell