The second youngest of Charles’ children and one of two daughters to be given to Middlemore Home and sent to Canada beacuse there was no safety net to care for in England. There she was passed from placement to placement, before being “returned to England” where she died of TB and exhaustion in the Workhouse aged 18. The facts of her life are a stark illustration of something

The facts:

Born Birmingham 3rd April 1872 according to baptism record.

6 years  baptised 11^th December 1878 as at Christ Church (by the Floosy) – living in Mary Ann Street (off St Pauls Square). 

7 years  11^th September 1879 Father given 3 months hard labour for assaulting her mother; still at Mary Ann Street

9 years in  1881 Census still in JQ but now back of 21 Tyndall St – between Camden St and Newhall Hill. 

10 years  January 1882 Father is discharged ?? after unlawfully wounding her mother but told to get a judicial separation.

11 years   30^th October 1882 older sister Ann Phoebe is taken to Middlemore by her mother.  Mother & daughters living as lodgers at 8 John Street, Dale End. 

Actual age  13 18^th June 1883 – aged 11??? – sails from Liverpool on the Circassian.   Arrives Quebec ??  Placed with / indentured to M Shepherd,, Goderich, Ontario. then Emma Ranney then George Ryan then Robert Dunmore.. 1886! Returned to England…..

• 22nd June 1883
• 26th June 1883
• 26th June 1884
• 23rd March 1886
• 13th June 1886
• 29th June 1886

No idea between 14 and 18 – ended up in Birmingham Workhouse.

Ann Phoebe Blakemore died of “Pthisis, 2 weeks exhaustion” on 28^th May 1890 aged 18 in the Dudley Road Workhouse Infirmary.

The death certificate has no mention of either parent or any siblings. She was buried in a common grave in Witton cemetery two days later. This was not recorded as a pauper’s burial so somebody, somewhere must have cared enough to pay for it.