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Facts and Events
George Kempson was born in 1843 at Stanbridge in Bedfordshire, son of Mary Kempson, formerly Hemmings, and her husband Joseph Kempson, an agricultural labourer. George's father was sent to jail for a year about the same time that George was born. George's mother died when he was less than a year old, being buried on Christmas Eve 1843 at Stanbridge, whilst his father was still in jail.
George's father was released in March 1844, and remarried the following year, with a Sarah Neal (formerly Gobby) becoming George's stepmother. George appears in the 1851 census with his father, stepmother, brother, step-sister and two half-siblings living in Totternhoe. He was described as a straw plaiter. The family later moved into the nearby town of Dunstable.
Late in 1860 George spent some time in the Luton Union Workhouse. On 23rd December 1860, feeling unwell, he asked for some medicine to treat the symptoms of diarrhoea. He was accidentally given disinfectant instead, which he drank. For the next three months he suffered the effects of the poisoning, which was described as leaving him unable to retain any food, reducing him to a skeletal figure and leaving him too weak to walk. His family removed him from the workhouse and brought him home to Dunstable. His stepmother had to carry him the half mile from the workhouse to Luton railway station, where they narrowly missed a train to Dunstable and had to wait two hours for the next train. At Dunstable, she had to carry him again from the station to their home, where he died on 18th March 1861, aged about eighteen.
At the inquest into his death, the workhouse authorities were criticised for having poisonous substances left so accessible and being administered by people who were illiterate. A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded.
References
- ↑ Births index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).
b. George KEMPSON, June Quarter 1843, Leighton Buzzard Registration District, Vol. 6, page 81
- ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
Class HO107; Piece 1757; Folio 12; Page 17, 30 Mar 1851.
Address: Totternhoe, Bedfordshire
Joseph Kempson, head, married, male, 35 [1815/6], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], b. Totternhoe, Bedfordshire
Sarah Kempson, wife, married, female, 41 [1809/10], Straw Plaiter, b. Wobourn [sic], Bedfordshire
David Kempson, son, male, 11 [1839/40], Straw Plaiter, b. Stanbridge, Bedfordshire
George Kempson, son, male, 8 [1842/3], Straw Plaiter, b. Stanbridge, Bedfordshire
Elizabeth Kempson, daughter, female, 7 [1843/4], Straw Plaiter, b. Toddington, Bedfordshire
James Kempson, son, male, 4 [1846/7], Scholar, b. Puddle Hill, Bedfordshire
Rebecca Kempson, daughter, female, 1 [1849/50], b. Totternhoe, Bedfordshire
- ↑ Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).
d. George KEMPSTON, March Quarter 1861, Luton Registration District, Volume 3b, page 279, aged 18 [1842/3]
- ↑ Bedfordshire Mercury, Bedford, in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
Saturday, 30 Mar 1861.
DUNSTABLE
DEATH FROM POISONING.-DISTRESSING CASE.-At the close of last year a young man named George Kempson was an inmate of the Luton union, and on the 23rd of December, feeling unwell, he asked the porter to give him a mixture, he at the time having symptoms of diarrhoea. The porter told the youth he would give him something, and did so; but in mistake handed to Kempson a quantity of Burnett's disinfecting fluid. Kempson appears to have taken the liquid, and from that time appearances of poison presented themselves. After three months of the most dreadful suffering, during which the poor fellow was reduced to a skeleton and was unable to retain anything on his stomach, death ensued at Dunstable, (to which town he had been removed) on the 18th inst. But this is not the whole of this painful case. When the sufferer left the union he was so weak that he was unable to walk, and there being no accommodation in the way of a conveyace, we are informed his mother absolutely carried him to the railway-station, a distance of half-a-mile, but arrived there five minutes after the train had started for Dunstable, and had therefore to wait two hours. On reaching Dunstable the young man was so weak, that he was again carried to his home by his mother, where he subsequently died. The body was examined by Mr F. Farr, surgeon, who discovered the usual appearances of poison. At the inquest held on the body, the jury, after severely reprimanding the porter for his carelessness, and intimating that he had narrowly escaped being committed for manslaughter, returned a verdict of death from misadventure. The jury also censured the authorities for allowing the poison to remain about in so careless a manner. It appeared from the evidence that a man-nurse is in the habit of giving out medicine in the union, and that this individual cannot even read, so that if any poisonous articles are within reach, the lives of perhaps scores are in jeopardy. We could wish for the sake of humanity, and for the credit of the parochial authorities, that these statements are not true; but they are facts, which we are informed, cannot be denied.
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