Sheffield Workhouse - the last word.

I am back in Edinburgh and today's image is of one of the least attractive buildings in the city, and probably one of the least loved. This is the City Mortuary - and I am using it because returning from Sheffield, and following on my two day workhouse theme, I did a bit of quick research and came up with this sad story.

In 1882 there was a boarding house that was kept by a 60year old widow Frances Mason. Among the lodgers were the Wood family, John and Eliza Wood and their three young daughters, aged 6, 3 and 1 years. John was aged 36. He had worked hard as a draper's assistant, but developed tuberculosis and eventually became unemployed. The family quickly became impoverished, even Mrs Wood's wedding ring had to be sold, and they slipped down the social scale.

In January 1882 John was dying. The landlady, fearful of a death in the house, ordered Mrs Wood to remove John to the workhouse, and he was taken there by his wife in a cab. He died 5 minutes after arriving there. The following day, Eliza asked to see her husband's face for a last time. She was told she couldn't because the coffin was screwed down. She made such a fuss that eventually the coffin was opened - and she saw there not her 36 year old husband but the body of a pauper aged 71.

It emerged that quietly, no paperwork, no records, and probably a guinea or two changing hands, that the man in charge of the dead-house of the workhouse was sending the bodies of old residents with no relatives to be dissected at the medical school. John Wood had already gone there. A cab made the journey at breakneck speed and just and no more saved him from the dissector's knife.

The Leeds Mercury dated January 31, 1882 under the title THE SHEFFIELD WORKHOUSE SCANDAL gave a brief account of the subsequent enquiry.

"Mr. Basil Cane, the Poor Law Inspector for the district held an enquiry at the Sheffield Workhouse yesterday into the cause of a mistake by which the body of a young man named John Wood was taken to the Medical School for the purpose of dissection, instead of that of an old man named Thomas Ellis. Several of the Guardians were present, as were also Mr. Edward Skinner, (an unfortunate but appropriate surname?), lecturer on anatomy at the Medical School. The object of the Poor Law Inspector was to ascertain how the mistake had arisen. Evidence was given to show that the man who had charge of the dead-house had been dismissed from his post and that a new official had been put in his place. It is this and the failure to put cards bearing the names and ages of the bodies that led to the unfortunate occurrence. The enquiry lasted till late at night."

I now leave the sad scene behind and hope to return to more normal service tomorrow!