Occupation: Ward Woman

[Allan F Sparrow]

Ward Woman

Can anyone throw any light on this occupation?

The context: in 1897, in St Mary’s parish, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, an unmarried woman had two children baptised, a boy 7 years old and a girl 4 years old. The three were living in Thingoe Union Workhouse (in Bury) at the time, and the woman’s occupation was given as “Ward woman”. All this is based on a transcript: I have not seen the original.

I am inclined to think she must have held an official position in the workhouse, rather than being (only) a pauper inmate, but if anyone knows better, I would like to hear of it.

Pure curiosity: the family came from a village where my own family used to live, and I’m looking into all the local families – with a very long way to go!

[mikejee]

It would seemnthat it was a paid advertised position from this advert in the Bury (Suffolk) Free Press 9.1.1886

[Allan F Sparrow]

Thank you for that really good bit of information! It obviously confirms what I suspected: and the woman in my transcript would even have fitted the age requirement of the Ely advert. Not surprising, as Ely is not so very far from Bury St Edmunds, and in any case the poor law unions probably had the same or very similar rules.