The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.2 | Sept 2023

Member’s article

Shirley Warren – was this her? An example of ‘less is more’ searching that found a vital piece of the jigsaw. Knowle records With the Hampshire Records Office now open again, post Covid, I was able to order up several of the original Knowle patient records that were older than 100 years. Knowing Ada forwards - and found her. Now living in Market Street, Eastleigh, Ada was admitted to Knowle on 10th July 1908 having just given birth (to son John) on 26th June. She then suffered a severe PP (post partum) haemorrhage. Her detailed case notes describe all the dreadful symptoms and subsequent behaviours that led to her diagnosis of Puerperal Mania. Surprisingly, she was discharged, at the “request of friends”, on 26th August although her state was “not improved”. Her case was closed. I took the opportunity to search the Knowle burial records for her burial in 1919 – but she was not listed. Either she didn’t die there or had given birth in 1908, I scoured the admission documents from that point

she did and was not buried there. I purchased the death certificate for the Ada Hatcher in the BMD entry mentioned earlier. It was indeed for Ada, wife of A.C. Hatcher of Market Street,

Eastleigh. She died in Knowle on 25th February 1919 aged 39 of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).

This meant that Ada died just 18 days after her estranged husband, Alfred, had become a father again (to George) in Southampton. This find, and the fact that Ada was in Knowle in the 1911 census, meant that she must have been re-admitted soon after her original discharge and stayed for many years. I could not find a re-admission date in the Knowle originals – but then I got lucky. Ancestry has an unlikely collection entitled ‘UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912’. There are two entries for Ada in Hampshire: •Admission no. 76139 on 10th July 1908 - discharged ('Not Improved') on 16th Aug 1908. •Admission no. 19922 on 8th July 1910. Died on 25th Feb 1919. This second entry confirmed what I had suspected and completed my search –

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