Harry (1) Woodhurst

Brief biography

Harry (1) Woodhurst was born in 1855 to parents Richard William (1) Woodhurst (RWW) and his first wife Susannah Miller. The birth certificate [Birth Index: Stepney 1c 465, 1855 (Sept)] states that he was born on July 13th 1855 at his parents' address which was then 2, Lady Lake's Grove in the Mile End Old Town district of Stepney. His father was described as a straw and willow dyer, and his mother was the informant. There were no Woodhurst-related persons at this address - which was near Jubilee Street - in the 1851 Census, and by the time of the 1861 Census the address had ceased to exist.

Harry (1) was killed in a road accident at the age of 4. The death certificate [Death Index: Shoreditch 1c 154, 1859 (Sept)] states that he died on September 13th 1859 "in the street near Philip Street, Kingsland Road, Shoreditch". This street is correctly spelled Phillipp Street and lies immediately south of, and parallel to, Mill Row where the family was certainly living in 1858. Phillipp Street and Mill Row are interconnected by a short stretch of road. The cause of death is given as "Violent Death. Run over by an omnibus, severing head from body. Accidental. Inquest". Harry (1) is described as the "son of Richard Woodhurst, hat maker". The informant column states "Information received from John Humpherys [sic] Coroner for East Middlesex. Inquest held 15th September 1859". The Coroner's surname was actually Humphreys. The Coroners' Reports and Registers for East Middlesex in that period appear not to have survived, according to the records of the London Metropolitan Archives. However, it is possible that the inquest was reported in one of the contemporary local newspapers.

Nothing more is known of Harry (1).