thomas mallindine + elizabeth worgan
Thomas was born on 28 October 1865, to William Mallindine and Elizabeth Mary Pearce, and baptised four years later at St Matthias, Bethnal Green.
He was 22 years old and working as a French Polisher when he married Elizabeth Worgan at St Matthew on 26 July 1887. At the time, he was living at his family’s home at 74 Pelham Street and Elizabeth lived at 3 White Street. Elizabeth was born on 3 September 1865 and baptised on 18 July 1866 at the St Anne’s Roman Catholic church in Tower Hamlets. She was the daughter of George Worgan and Ellen Denny. Her mother died when she was six years old and several years later, her father remarried to Catherine Driscoll, Elizabeth’s god-mother.
Elizabeth Mary Ann was born on 25 October 1887 at 74 Pelham Street, just three months after Thomas and Elizabeth married. When Thomas was born on 26 August 1889, the young family was living at 2 Cheshire Street in Bethnal Green but by 1891, they had moved again to 7 Canrobert Street. On 12 April 1892, their third child, William George, was born and he was baptised at St Bartholomew in Bethnal Green on 4 May 1892 along with his older brother Thomas.
William died aged 27 on 21 February 1893 at the London Hospital in Whitechapel but as yet the cause of death is not known. Elizabeth was left to support three children under the age of five at a time when there was no social safety net for families in their situation but she was able to keep her family together.
She gave birth to a daughter name Martha on 26 December 1896 but no birth registration has been found under Mallindine or Worgan and the identity of Martha’s father remains a mystery. The family left the East End and were living at 94 Guinness Buildings in Page’s Walk, Bermondsey when William was enrolled in the local school, Snowfields, on 19 March 1900 and the school register notes that he had no previous education even though he was eight years old. The register also contain a note the William was a ‘cripple as the reason he later left the school. Four year old Martha was enrolled in the school three months after William.
In 1901, Elizabeth and her two eldest children, Elizabeth and Thomas, were living in the Guinness Buildings in Bermondsey and she supported her family by working as a vegetable cook in a restaurant. The Guinness Buildings were built by Guinness Trust that was established by Sir Edward Guinness, later to become Lord Iveagh, with the intention of providing ‘clean and healthy homes for people somewhat poorer than those who at present avail themselves of the existing artisans’ dwellings. The Guinness Trust tenements would be let at such rents that would place them within the reach of the poorest of the labouring population and any profit would be reinvested to build more housing.’
The estate in Page’s Walk consisted of 355 one, two, and three room tenements in five-storey blocks but there was no electricity or running water within the apartments with only communal sinks and toilets on shared landings while baths and laundry facilities were housed in separate blocks.
Elizabeth’s two younger children, William and Martha, were not living with her in 1901 and have not been found elsewhere in the census. William died on 11 February 1906 aged only 13 years and was buried 5 days later at Manor Park Cemetery in Newham. Considering the disability listed in his school record, he may have been in a hospital or similar institution in the years prior to his death but there is no other record relating to Martha around this time.
Eldest daughter Elizabeth married Arthur James Gillian on 22 December 1908 at St Olave in Southwak. He was born on 9 December 1886 in Christchurch, Exeter as James Arthur Gillian but used his given names in reverse for most of his adult life. In 1911, they were living at 210 Long Lane in Bermondsey and Arthur was working as a Packer for a Newspaper Distributor. Several months after the census, their first child, Victor Arthur, was born in Bermondsey on 30 July 1911 followed by son Alan in 1918 and daughter Elizabeth in 1921.
Elizabeth was still living in the Guinness Buildings along with son Thomas and daughter Martha but they had moved to a three room tenement at number 267. She was still working as a Vegetable Cook and Thomas was a Fountain Pen Repairer. Martha’s place of birth is listed as the ‘Minories’ which could refer to the Holy Trinity Minories, an ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate which later became part of the Liberties of the Tower of London.
In the years after the census, Elizabeth and her children moved south to the village of Dulwich. On 27 November 1916, Thomas , a 27 year old Salesman living at Park Road in West Dulwich, was charged at Lambeth with absenting himself without leave when being called up for military service. He had previously been granted a non-combatant certificate but stated that he did not think it was right for the government to make a soldier of him as he believed ‘handling shot was as bad as firing shot’. He was fined and handed over to a military escort but there is no record of whether he faced additional charges.
Thomas married Amy Vollor on 9 June 1923 in West Dulwich and they had two sons. The moved to Woolwich and lived at 125 Plumstead Road from 1926 to 1934 and 83 Frederick Place from 1936 to 1937. Elizabeth lived with her daughter Elizabeth and her family throughout the 1920s and 30s. Martha died in Dulwich on 2 February 1929 and was buried at the Camberwell New Cemetery on 7 February. She appeared in the Electoral Register for 1929 at 86 Park Road in Dulwich in the same house as her mother, sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law Arthur Gillian but she does not appear with her family before that date.
Elizabeth Gillian died on 5 March 1938 at the Dulwich Hospital aged 50 years and the following year, Arthur married again to Elizabeth Campbell. After her daughter’s death, Elizabeth moved in with her son Thomas and daughter-in-law Amy in Woolwich. In 1939, Thomas, Amy, and Elizabeth were living at 20 Horsa Road in Woolwich and he was working as a Gardener. His two young sons, aged 10 and 6, were not living with the family and may have been evacuated from London to a safer location.
Elizabeth died in Croydon on 18 March 1957 and six months later, on 13 October, her son Thomas died. His wife Amy died in Bromley on 28 January 1988.