Tag Archives: death

Poor Law, Salvation Army, and a David Poulson story

Brighton workhouse as WWI hospital
Brighton workhouse as WWI hospital

Searching the 1939 register to find John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel – I located him in Brighton – a place we have no family connections  (that I know of).  “Elm Grove Home (temporary)” was noted by the street addresses on Vernon Terrace were I found the Wastrel’s name.

A little digging in old newspapers and web searches revealed that in 1930 The Brighton Poor Law Union handed over responsibility to the local council and only the elderly and infirm remained in the Elm Grove Home. In 1935, The Brighton Municipal Hospital took over the workhouse building and the Elm Grove Home residents were moved to vacant properties in the area. The era of workhouses and Poor Law Unions was ending.

So far, I have no idea how or when John Walden ended up in this old people’s home for the poor, but he had turned 69 that January and I’m assuming things hadn’t looked up much (or at all) since the embezzlement problems in Goole, Yorkshire. Continue reading Poor Law, Salvation Army, and a David Poulson story

It all started out so well for John Walden Poulson…

Poulson brothers 1899 letterhead
Poulson brothers 1899 letterhead

John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel, my great grandfather – as the oldest son of Edwin Llewellyn Poulson should have taken over the family pottery business in Ferrybridge, Yorkshire.

Edwin and his older brother Thomas had built up the West Riding Pottery business over their lifetimes from what their father, Walden Poulson had left when he died in 1861. As a rough gauge of how things had grown, Walden willed less than £300 (about £35,000 today) in 1861, but when his oldest son Thomas died in 1893, he left £6,650 (£820,000 today).

John Walden started as a 19 year old clerk – at least that was what his first marriage certificate showed… Continue reading It all started out so well for John Walden Poulson…