Edith Monument

Born 1875, died 1946
Assistant Nurse at Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse, 1895-98
Researched by Dauna Coppin

Edith Louisa Monument was born on 28th October 1875. She was baptised in the Parish of East Dereham, three miles form Gressenhall Workhouse, on 31st December and her parents were Eliza and Frederick. Frederick was a Carpenter by trade. In 1881, Edith was living with her parents at 6 Back Lanes, Hartington Terrace, East Dereham, aged 5 and she was being educated at school. Along with her three siblings, also living in the house was her widowed grandfather, John Skipper, an Ostler (caring for horses or mules).

When Edith was 18 years old, she gained employment as a sewing maid for William Mollison at 2 Cranmer Road, Cambridge. Mr Mollison was a Tutor at Cambridge University and his wife was born in East Dereham, which may be how Edith secured the employment. She worked there from October 1893 until December 1894, when her employer had to reduce his staff numbers.

Subsequently, for the following six months, Edith worked for a local General Practitioner, Dr Herbert Archer, Royston, Cambridge, as a nurse. She left in June 1895 in order to obtain a better position. 

Her next job, from June to October 1895, was as a sewing maid for Mr Hambling Smith, Woodbridge. On 6th February 1896, Edith, then aged 21 years old,  completed an application form for employment as a day nurse for the Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse Infirmary. Her employment commenced on 17th December 1895 when her salary was 10s per week until 13th January 1896, when it would become £13 per annum on her appointment as a Probationer Nurse. It was noted that she had no certificate from an institution, but her competency was based on “a verbal recommendation of some of the Guardians to whom she is known”. Her appointment, in addition to the agreed salary, included board,  lodging and washing but no beer money.

In June 1896, Edith was given an allowance for the extra task of accompanying a patient from the Norwich hospital to the Workhouse. In November 1897, she was given an increase in wages to £18 per annum. In January 1898, she was given a gratuity of £2 for taking on additional duties to cover a nurse who had left.

However, Edith eventually resigned her position at Gressenhall. The Guardians Committee recorded on 8th August 1898 that they had received her letter of resignation requesting that her last day of work should be 29th August. She received a Testimonial stating that she has been an assistant nurse for 2 years and 6 months, they stated that “She has proved herself to be an excellent nurse and performed her duties to the entire satisfaction of the Guardians”.

Later, in 1900, there was some confusion by the Poor Law Board as to whether or not Edith was still employed as a nurse but the Clerk to the Guardians confirmed her resignation. This confusion may have arisen because Edith’s younger sister, Lillie, had also been taken on in a nursing role in April 1900. She, however, was not employed for long as she was just 19 years old and there was disapproval from the Board, who stated that nurses should only be employed if they were over the age of 21. Lillie left in October 1900.

It is not certain what happened to Edith immediately after she left her employment at Gressenhall, but by 1900 she was living and working as a nurse in the Holborn Workhouse in Mitcham, Surrey. Whilst there, she met Frederick William Stephens, known as Frank, also a nurse at the Workhouse. They were married on 7th January 1900 when Edith was 25 years old.

The 1901 census showed that Edith had gone home to Norfolk and was staying with her father, Frederick, and six of her siblings. Presumably, she had gone there to give birth as her son, Frederick Frank, who was born on 4th May 1901 in East Dereham.  Meanwhile, her husband, Frank, was recorded on the census as living and working at Chertsey Union Workhouse as a sick nurse.

By the 1911 census, Edith had returned to work in the Chertsey Union Workhouse as a sick nurse, alongside her husband, Frank. Her 9-year-old son, Frederick was living as a boarder with the Brookson family who were running The Castle Inn, Ottershaw in Chertsey.

A second son, William, was born in 1913. By 1921, Edith and Frank were living at Holwood Villas in Chertsey. Frank was still working as a man nurse for the Chertsey Board of Guardians but the 45-year-old Edith was at home on domestic duties with her children. Her eldest son, Frederick was 20 years old and worked as a Millwright engineer.

dith first became a grandmother in 1924 with the birth of Mollie, followed by Eileen in 1929 and Joan in 1938. Sadly, in 1933, Edith’s husband Frank died, aged 58.  

In 1939, the register showed 64-year-old Edith was living at Wood Glen, Ottershaw, Chertsey. Her occupation was shown as Maternity Nurse. Her son, Frederick had joined the RAF and was living in Southwark, London, whilst her other son, William, was working as a carpenter and living with his wife and daughter at New Haw in Chertsey.

Nothing further is known of Edith, apart from the fact that she returned to her home county of Norfolk (probably when she retired) where she died aged 71 years old whilst living in Great Yarmouth in the September Quarter of 1946.