Harry’s sister Kate was born on 22nd April 1876, the year after the family sold the “New Farm” at Annesley, about 8 miles (5km) North of Awsworth.
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We can see at the 1881 census that the family was living with Harry’s grandmother, the widow Sarah Brown (evidently she must have lost two husbands).
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In the 1891 census, the family, now having lost their mother, was still living in Awsworth in Towsons Row. (Farmer Towson – farmer of 54 acres - lives at number 1). Catherine, called Kate on the census, has no recorded occupation but, at 14, was probably occupied in looking after 3 year old Harry.
I have no further information about Kate until the 1901 census. In the intervening time, she would have been helping to bring up Harry and will have endured the loss of her elder sister Mary Esther who was 17 when she died in 1889.
By 1901, Kate was living with her father in a different house, this time in Kimberly Lane Awsworth. We know that Annie was in service and Harry was living with brother Jack, now a school teacher in Oxford. She has no recorded occupation. Her father Henry, was a chemical labourer.
Still nothing more that I can find until 1910 when Connie was born. Catherine’s occupation was recorded on the birth certificate as a school teacher. I had always assumed that Connie was the result of some youthful indiscretion – or perhaps some “gentleman” had taken advantage of her youthful inexperience. Of course, at 34 years of age, neither was the case. Connie was born at 145 Nottingham Road Ilkeston, I believe it was where sister Annie lived later, maybe then. The only clue as to the father’s identity is Connie’s middle name - Constance Wilkinson Lamin.
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By 1913, Kate had moved to London and had become a qualified midwife. I have no information about what happened to Connie. Ethel and Harry weren’t married until March the next year. 24th January 1913, “Kate Lamin entered the service of the Guardians of the Poor of the Parishes of St GILES-IN-THE FIELDS AND ST GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY, as Midwife”. She was described as “A qualified and certificated midwife. Kind and considerate to her patients.”
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The family always referred to her in quite respectful terms. I got the impression that she was quite well off, if not wealthy. My sister Anita, who hadn’t quite reached her fifth birthday when Kate died, can remember her. She recalls “a formidable woman.”
Pictures (Click on any picture to enlarge) From the top.
1. The poster for the farm sale 1875.
2. Kate's cross-stitch sampler produced at Awsworth Board School.
3. Funeral cards for Harry's mother and sister, Mary Esther.
4. Employment record for her London job.
5. Wonderful velum certificate "Inspector of Nuisances".
6. A studio photograph of Kate in her nurse's uniform.
7. On holiday in Blackpool in 1925. (Actually, on holiday in front of a picture of Blackpool!)
8. Kate at Willie's wedding to Nancy 1941.