Workhouse - multiple admissions

[Tonty]

I'm trying to understand the attached workhouse admission details for Lily Whelan - my great grandmother.

The first admission for her and her 2 sons show her staying for 3 months, but the children being discharged the same day. Does this mean that the workhouse did not accept children?

[peterd]

was she a widow or separated may be the father took them ?

[Tonty]

Unfortunately he died in 1912.

[SRD]

During WWI the workhouses were under a lot of pressure due to staff volunteering for the war, they were being used to house the sick, both mentally & physically, as well as the poor. There's more info here http://www.workhouses.org.uk/wartime/ I have a distant relative who, in the days before the NHS, died in the workhouse from pneumonia despite being comparatively wealthy, presumably because, during the war, medical treatment and care there was better than in other local facilities which were taken up by treating war wounded.

Looking at the full record it looks to me as if Lily was ill, maybe post-natal depression but it may have been the effects of childbirth, (presumably the last entry indicates her death in the Union). Leonard was only just born but if he and his sister were well enough they may have been taken on by family or fosterers (maybe a wet nurse if her mother wasn't up to it). Of course that's all supposition, there's no proof of it.

[BC Wench]

SRD's explanation seems very plausible to me.

I would like to point out though, the photograph is from the Religious Creed Register.

Workhouses held various registers, one of them being the Religious Creed Register. There would also have been an Admission & Discharge Register which would obviously include the admission date and the discharge date, with the discharge date stating if that person had actually died in the workhouse or was just discharged. If I remember correctly from the Workhouse registers at Dudley Archives, it would also have included the types of food that the inmates received.

So it all depends if the Admission & Dishcarge Register has survived for Portsmouth.

[gardener]

What is the initial above the discharge date? H? Does that mean something?

[SRD]

If it is the case that the Union was taking in more than paupers it may relate as to the reason for admission, possibly Health?

[Tonty]

Many thanks for this. I will see if the Workhouse registry is available for viewing, it doesn't appear to be available online.