Person:John Rigby (5)

Perhaps supervised Joseph Merrick- the 'Elephant Man':

'At the age of twelve [c1874] he was sent to work in a cigar shop [Freeman's] in nearby Lower Hill Street. His first job lasted just two years. By that time his growing deformity meant he was becoming clumsy. His fingers could no longer work the tobacco leaves. Desperate for income, his father sent Joseph to hawk haberdashery goods on street corners. Joseph had little success because of his appearance. His new, extended family expected him to sell a minimum amount of goods each day to support himself. Perhaps inevitably, one day, suffering from malnourishment, the boy spent what little money he had taken on food. That night after his father had beaten him viciously, he separated from his family for ever. Today, Lower Hill Street is a pedestrian link between a large grey multi-storey car park and the city's main shopping areas. Grey-faced office blocks tower on either side. Most are empty and are bearing the signs of decay and vandalism, redundant designs based on the redundant ideas of the 1960's building boom Opposite, where the ten-storey concrete office block Epic House now stands, is where Joseph Merrick found his first employment soon after his twelfth birthday. ' http://www.leicesterchronicler.com/merrick.htm

Note: Lower Hill St was a later home of John's son Charles...