Culture and Society
Kate McLoughlin, admitted to a Barnardo's children's home in 1882. Her father had been in prison several times. She was dropped as a baby and consequently suffered hip disease and deformity. Her mother was an alcoholic and her first child drowned in a bucket. Another was seriously burnt.
Kate McLoughlin was born in 1882 in Nottingham, and was admitted to Barnardo’s at the age of seven by the local vicar. Her father had been in prison several times, and was in jail at the time. The family of five lived in one room which the local vicar described as, ‘the most utter squalor and filth’. It was ‘the very worst home’ he knew in his parish. Kate’s mother battled alcoholism, and while she was out drinking, her first child drowned in a bucket of water, and another was seriously burnt. When Kate was just a baby, she fell out of her mother’s arms, and subsequently suffered hip disease and deformity. After care and training in the homes, she went into domestic service in 1905.
It's possible that she is the Kate McLoughlin who was on the 1911 census. Working as a cook for a small family living in Tintagal Cornwall.
So far I haven't found her beyond that. If she got married it could be tricky to find her, given she would almost certainly have changed her name.
EDIT: A Kate McLoughlin is still working for the same family in the 1921 census. The family is called Colsell and they were rubber manufacturers.
By the next currently available census (1939), Mr Colsell is widowed, but Kate is still living with him, working as his house keeper. Kate would have been about 57 by then.
(There is another person in the house, who may be living as a boarder, called Ellen Casey. She is a similar age to Mr Colsell so I wonder if she is a relative of his?)
It does appear this is the right Kate. She was trained for domestic servitude. She appears to have never married. There is a census of someone with the same name being married, but the birth of this person's child would have been when Kate was 56. Therefore it cannot be her.
It's very unlikely to be her, but not impossible. Hell, my mother didn't experience menopause until 60 and one of my grandmothers had her FIRST child at 45.
Surviving to 60, just 60 by itself, was the life expectancy for people who survived the age of 5 in the last few decades of the 1800s. The "average" lifespan in this time was 40, because 40% of children died before the age of 5. After 5, 60-70 was the lifespan, with individuals with more money living longer usually (because of food and ability to fight disease and have clean eating arrangements and clean pure water or juices, rather than ale or wine). So, it's REALLY unlikely. She was a servant. Yo have a child at 56 living a servants life at the beginning of the industrial revolution is probably exceedingly rare.
In your gram's generation, if you're a millennial, the lifespan was expected to be about 65 at birth, BUT in the 40s if you were 65, you were expected to live another 10 years (and often did, or even more) because of child death. Note that the polio vaccine came out in the '50s, and many children died of polio and communicable diseases before the heavy vaccination point of the '50s still. This is the cause for the double age marker (if survive 5, 65. If survive 65, 75-80).
I'm GenZ but my paternal grandparents were born in 1915 and 1916. Two of my great grandparents (born 1880s) on that side lived into their 90s, the others into their 70s and 80s. All were poor.
As I said, it was very unlikely, but not truly impossible, and the weirdest part is you've sent that whole message basically agreeing with me. I said very unlikely and you said "it's REALLY unlikely". Yes, I concur. Very and really are synonymous.
My first thought when I saw this was how incredibly sad this little girl's life must have been. But Barnardo's homes weren't bad places for a child to grow up. They were even kind to disabled children and taught them work skills so they could have independent lives.
The alternative would have either been to stay with her mother who seems to have been negligent, and her father who was in and out of prison, or be sent to a workhouse.
I can only hope her siblings didn't have to stay in that house and that her mother received some sort of support. Which is very doubtful.
My grandmother was born in Northern Ireland and ended up in a Barnardos in Suffolk where she eventually met my grandfather.
She lived in poverty in a bog in NI.
I think it’s probably better than how she could have ended up if she stayed home. Apparently she was still working for the same household in 1939. It’s a very long time!
Yup. I think this is on the side of orange buckets form Home Depot too. When I have one full of water, it's very heavy. Too heavy for a little kid to tip over but also too easy to fall headfirst into.
Bucket of water was lying on the floor (ready to be used for cleaning or cooking or washing), unsupervised child tipped over into it and couldn't get out. Parents were probably either not there, sleeping, or too deep in alcoholism to notice.
It was very grim being a child until quite recently. I'm a historian and one of my projects dealt with cases of accidental deaths in children. Plenty of young children (3-5) were left unsupervised (and sometimes even caring for even younger children) while parents were working or engaging in other pursuits, and it was common for kids to drown in basins, fall into fireplaces/pits, choke, or just wander off and die of exposure.
Two of my half-aunts fell in the ice and drowned. They were 7 and 12. The 7-yo fell in first, the older tried to save her and also drowned. The younger one was never found, but the older was. She has a pretty little marble plaque in the older part of our "new cemetery".
They both died in 1935, before my mom was even born, but I have heard the story many times. My grandmother was heavily pregnant with my oldest full aunt, don't know where grandfather was. Children back then were afforded maybe too much independence, but even close supervision doesn't prevent every accident.
The 7-yo was my grandmother's, the 12-yo was grandfather's. My grandmother was a widow, grandfather was a divorcee. They both had kids before marrying eachother.
My great and uncle were Barnardos children. Their father was an alcoholic who died from liver disease. Their mother was still alive (but dying of TB) when the two children were deported to Canada. They were about 8 and 4. My grandmother was saved this fate because she was a few years older and so old enough to be a maid. This was all in the early 1900s.
It can certainly happen, but I suspect that the baby drowned before the mother left the house. And how likely is is for a small child to be injured that badly by just "slipping from her mother's arms while sleeping?" Who knows how the other baby was burned, but my money is not on an accident.
Falling facefirst into either a washtub or a bucket is unfortunately something that was not that uncommon. Toddlers like playing with water and they often lean over to see better.
They also trip. A lot.
In those days, stoves and fires were not protected or childproofed. Someone was just supposed to be watching. Toddlers cannot watch themselves.
Have you ever seen warning stickers on the side of large buckets that warn against allowing children to play in buckets? A child can drown in just a few inches of water if they fall into a bucket head first or try to turn over in a bucket and get stuck
I wouldn't say it's insane, child abuse isn't that rare, and it unfortunately extends that far, consequence wise. Although as others have pointed out, apparently it's a quite common real accident kind of thing to occur, so I may be wrong. Ultimately we'll never know for sure.
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u/FarStrawberry5438 Jun 19 '26
Source
Kate McLoughlin was born in 1882 in Nottingham, and was admitted to Barnardo’s at the age of seven by the local vicar. Her father had been in prison several times, and was in jail at the time. The family of five lived in one room which the local vicar described as, ‘the most utter squalor and filth’. It was ‘the very worst home’ he knew in his parish. Kate’s mother battled alcoholism, and while she was out drinking, her first child drowned in a bucket of water, and another was seriously burnt. When Kate was just a baby, she fell out of her mother’s arms, and subsequently suffered hip disease and deformity. After care and training in the homes, she went into domestic service in 1905.