arthur ernest mallandain + elizabeth emily webster
Arthur Ernest was born on 26 September 1871 at Gillingham, Kent, the son of Charles Mallandain and Mary McLean. His father was in the army and the family moved several times during his childhood before settling in north London. He appears in the 1891 Census with his parents at 5a Rotherfield Street, Islington and his occupation was listed as Engineer.
Arthur married Elizabeth Emily Webster on 21 January 1894 at St Columba Church, Haggerston in the borough of Hackney. Elizabeth was born in Shoreditch on 18 April 1874, the daughter of Joseph Webster, a Boot Finisher.
At the time of their marriage, they were living at 27 Ely Place in Haggerston but soon moved one street over, to Lynedoch Street, where they remained for the next fifteen years. Both Ely Place and Lynedoch Street are mentioned in Charles Booths’ Poverty Survey of London completed between 1886 and 1903. He describes Ely Place in his notebook:
‘houses on either side, 2 storied and 2 roomed, 77 houses in all, mess, not criminal but poor thriftless, women drink, two children bare foot, children happy, well fed, dirty. Windows dirty broken.’
But Lynedoch Street fared a bit better in his assessment:
‘better looked after than Ely Place, paving good, entered at either end through handsome iron gates. Known in the neighbourhood as the street with the beautiful gates. Property of an old maiden lady who takes an interest in it. Houses always well let, 3 rooms 7/6, 2 storied house, inhabited by small home workers, tailors and boot finishers.’
Arthur and Elizabeth had ten children and all of them were born on Lynedoch Street. Arthur Ernest was born at number 70 on 3 May 1894 and baptised at St Leonard in Shoreditch three weeks later. Edgar George was born on 24 May 1896 and baptised at St Columba on 14 June but he died shortly after his baptism. Joanna Louisa was born on 14 June 1897 and baptised at St Columba on 27 July but her baptism record lists the family address as number 24 so they may have moved to a larger house to accomodate their growing family. One year later, William Leopold was born on 5 October 1898 but he was baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 4 December. Son Charles was born in the early months of 1895 but he died shortly after his birth.
The parish church of St Columba was just around the corner from the Mallandain home on Lynedoch Street and the houses on the north side of the street backed on to the numerous buildings that made up the Shoreditch Workhouse and Infirmary. The workhouse was in operation on the site from the 1860s until well into the 1920s when it became a hospital. Lynedoch Street was later demolished to make way for the expansion of the hospital while St Columba operated as a parish church until the 1970s when dwindling attendance resulted in its amalgamation with the neighbouring parish of St Anne but the building still stands today and continues to be used as a church but not by the Church of England.
Ethel Florence was born on 23 December 1900 and baptised at St Columba on 14 January 1901. The family was still at number 24 at the time of the 1901 Census and Arthur was employed as a Tube Machinist.
Edgar Peter was born on 28 December 1902 and baptised the following June. Sidney Leonard was born on 4 January 1905 and baptised on 29 January and Charles Alexander was born on 17 October 1906 and baptised on 11 November. All three boys were baptised at St Columba. Hector McDonald was born on 7 October 1908 and although his baptism has not been found, it is assumed that he too was baptised at St Columba. Both Edgar and Sidney were enrolled in the Hammond Street School in early 1908 where Edgar remained for two years and Sidney stayed until May 1912 when he was transferred to the Orphan School. Charles also attended the school from 1910 to 1912 when he too was moved to the Orphan School.
Based on School Admission records, it appears the family moved to number 25 about 1908. They were still at number 25 in 1911 and the census return notes that the family of ten occupied only three rooms. Their eldest son, 16 year old Arthur was studying Electrical Engineering and the seven younger children were all attending school. The 1911 Census also contains information on how many children were born to the parents and how many have survived; Elizabeth had ten children by 1911 but two did not survive. Their second son Edgar George died in infancy but the second infant death has not been found.
Several months after the census, Arthur died at the Metropolitan Hospital in Kingsland of pneumonia on 7 September 1911. Elizabeth was pregnant with their tenth child and it appears that she was unable to support her family following Arthur’s death. Her son Arthur had joined the army but he was discharged early to help support his family and his three younger brothers were sent away to the Pirbright Church of England infants school in Pirbright, Surrey shortly after her son Francis James was born. Edgar, Sidney and Charles were admitted to the school on 11 March 1912 and each was listed as being under the care of a guardian, Mrs Bullin, of Pirbright Gardens. When they turned 10 years of age, they left the school and the register notes that all three boys had ‘gone into a home.’ Edgar left on 20 December 1912, Sidney on 22 October 1914 and Charles on 21 December 1916.
Her older children may have left school to find work and it is possible that Elizabeth received help from other family members or in desperation sought parish relief. Their difficulties continued when youngest son Francis died just before his second birthday. It is not known if her three sons ever returned home or if they remained in a boy’s home until they were old enough to leave on their own.
Ethel Florence died on 14 September 1918, just months before her eighteenth birthday, and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery. Over the next ten years, their surviving children left home to marry and start their own families. Their eldest son Arthur Ernest was the first to leave when he married Kate Alice Wilmott at St Columba on 10 July 1920 and they had three children — Arthur, Charles and Lillian. Joanna Louisa also married at St Columba to Alfred William Petts on 20 August 1921 and they went on to have two children, Alfred in 1922 and Stanley in 1930.
William Leopold left London and settled in the Maidenhead area although there is no information on why he left the city. In 1922, he married Alice Maud Mary Bristow, a war widow with four children. Several months after William’s wedding, Charles Alexander died in Shoreditch aged only sixteen years but the cause of death, whether accident or illness, is not known. William and Alice had two children of their own, William Leopold born in 1922 and Joanna in 1924; the family remained in Maidenhead and in 1939, William, a Motor Coach Driver, and Alice were living at 23 Denmark Street along with her daughter Marjorie and their son William.
Edgar Peter married Louisa Margaret Jones at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 9 September 1928 and they had two children, Edgar David and Eileen and lived in Enfield for many years. Sidney also moved to Maidenhead where he met and married Dorothy Hazelwood in 1930 and they had three children: Sidney Leonard born in 1931, Derek Charles born in 1933 and Yvonne Naomi born in 1938. In 1939, the family was living at 191 Westwood Lane, Bexley in Kent and Sidney was working as a journeyman carptenter and joiner. He was also interested in researching the family history and was a member of the Huguenot Society.
Hector married Julia Craig in Shoreditch in 1933 and they had seven children. In 1939, Hector was living at 62 Lynedock Street in Shoreditch and working as a lorry driver while Julia and the children were living at 21 Winfield Street in Dunstable in Bedfordshire. They moved from London to Berkshire about 1940 but the reason for their move is not known. Hector may have followed his brothers to Berkshire to seek better job opportunities or they may have been escaping the overcrowding in London. By the 1950s most of Arthur and Elizabeth’s adult children had left London for Essex, Berkshire and Kent but Elizabeth remained in London until her death in Bethnal Green in 1956.
Arthur was the first of the surviving children to pass away when he died in Epping in 1968. Sidney died on 15 March 1970 at Welling in Kent and his wife Dorothy died in Gravesend, Kent on 13 November 1991. Joanna died in Essex in 1973, Hector died in Slough in 1978 and William Leopold in Windsor three years later. Edgar Peter died in Southend on 13 June 1986 and was predeceased by his wife Louisa on 26 December 1973.