Person:Alice Murphy (9)

A Mother's Story

written by Bobby Hampton,
the great granddaughter
of Alice Annie Hampton

Alice Annie Murphy was born to Thomas Laurence Murphy and Elizabeth Sarah Manns on the fourth of May, 1862, in Millwall, Poplar, London, England. Alice Annie was the youngest of three children. She had a brother, Charles, and a sister, Elizabeth Mary Ann. Her father, Thomas Murphy, was a barge builder.

In 1871, the Murphy family was living not far from Millwall, in Mile End Old Town on Bridge Street. On August 2nd, 1885, Alice Annie married a bootmaker by the name of William Henry Hampton, in St. Jude’s Church in Bethnal Green, London.

Alice Annie’s first child, William Laurence, was born in Millwall on the 13th of June 1886. A second son, Richard Victor, was born in Mile End the following year on the 21st of December 1887 and a daughter, Mary Ann Maude, followed in March of 1889, born in Bethnal Green.

Then a series of tragic events happened to Alice Annie and her family.

In September of 1890, another son, Henry James, was born. Henry James died shortly after his birth. Then, according to the 1891 census, Alice Annie's husband was a patient in the London Hospital in Whitechapel while she is living with her three children in Leyton, West Ham, Essex County. Another son, Walter John, is born there in November of 1892. The next year, in October of 1893 at age 29, William Henry died in the West Ham Infirmary in Leytonstone of emphysema and pneumonia. His death certificate[1] says that Alice Annie was with him when he died.

Alice Annie was pregnant when her husband died and their child, Sydney, was born the following year, on the first of April 1894. Alice Annie normally supported her children by doing laundry but was unable to work during her “confinement” with Sydney. Friends and family tried to help her financially but eventually she was forced to give up her children and put them in orphanages.

On June 1, 1894, her youngest son, Sydney [2], was admitted to Barnardo’s orphanage. Alice Annie also applied to admit Walter John--but was denied. Eventually, however, Walter was also admitted to Barnardo’s. When Barnardo’s admitted the boys, Alice Annie signed a “Canada Clause” which gave Barnardo’s permission to send Sydney and Walter to Canada when they were old enough to work on a farm.

Little is known of Alice Annie for the next 20 years.

In 1901, all of her children are in orphanages in various parts of England. Her sons, Walter John and Sydney, were sent together, in June of 1904, to live on farms close by to each other in Ontario, Canada

In 1911, her remaining sons, William Laurence and Richard Victor, were living together in Islington in Greater London and her daughter is working as a domestic for the Warden of London Hospital in Whitechapel.

In 1914, her eldest son, William Laurence, married and, in October of 1915, he had a daughter, Irene Isabella. William Laurence and his brother, Richard Victor, join the army about this time.

Then incredibly another series of very tragic events happened in Alice Annie’s life

Her daughter, Mary Ann Maude, dies of ovarian cancer in April of 1915 at the age of 26. In January of 1916, her granddaughter, Irene Isabella who is just over a year old, dies. In October of 1917, Alice Annie’s oldest son, William, is killed in the war and the following year her son, Richard Victor, is taken prisoner of war.

So, as of 1918, 3 of Alice Annie’s children have died as well as her granddaughter. One son is a prisoner of war and her two youngest sons are in Canada.

According to information provided by the Claybury Asylum [3], Alice Annie was admitted on the 29th of January, 1926, and she died in Claybury of acute enteritis and chronic colitis on the 6th of January, 1931. Alice Annie was 68 years old at the time of her death.

Alice Annie's son, Richard Victor, survived the war, married in 1924 and had two children. Alice Annie's children in Canada, Walter and Sydney, also married and lived within an hour's drive of each other in Ontario (Walter in Chatham and Sydney in London). Walter had a daughter, Mary Lou, and Sydney had three chidren, Marjorie, Robert and Dorothy.

It is unknown for certain if Alice Annie and her children kept in touch, but it is possible. In a letter dated March 15, 1921, written to Richard Victor, Walter John said, “Do you hear anything about Mother now, or are you in touch with her all the time?”

1. ↑ England. England and Wales. 1871 Census Schedules. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).
2. ↑ England. 1891 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).
3. ↑ England. England. 1901 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Death - Alice Hampton
5. ↑ Birth - Alice Annie Murphy