Biography

Alice Harrison was born on 15 May 1888 to Edward and Martha (née Mason) Harrison at 32 Corporation Street in the Poolstock area of Wigan, and in 1892, moved with her family to Boar’s Head where her father Edward had obtained employment operating the pumping station.

A short two years later in 1894, Alice was orphaned at age 5 when both her father Edward and her mother Martha died within a month of each other—Edward of rabies in October and Martha of breast cancer in November of the same year. This tragedy left Alice, the youngest in the family, and her five siblings (Ellen, Joseph, John, Elizabeth, and Martha) ranging up to age 14, without parents.

Fortunately, there was help close at hand. Alice’s grandfather Joseph (whose wife Ellen had died the year before) and his unmarried daughters were able to move into the family’s home to care for the children; Joseph was given the job that his son Edward had held for the Wigan Municipal Water Works, which entitled the family to stay on in the company-owned house.

Sometime before Joseph’s death in 1908, but after the 1901 census, the family moved from the company house, likely occasioned by Joseph’s retirement from the job at the pumping station. Two of Alice’s unmarried aunts, Margaret and Nellie, continued to live with the family. It is likely they moved at that time to 130 Barnsley Street in Wigan, since it was at that address that Joseph was living when he died. Alice died at the same address ten years later.

Grandfather Joseph’s death also very likely caused much financial hardship, so much so that Alice’s cousin Harold Harrison, who had immigrated to Canada in 1907, continued to send the family money until 1914. Due to problems with his father (the proprietor of the Honeysuckle Inn), Harold had lived with his grandfather, aunts, and whatever cousins were still living with the family for a few years before he emigrated, and obviously felt affection for them, along with a real sense of gratitude and obligation.

Alice never married. At the time of the 1901 census, when she was age 12, her occupation was listed as cotton weaver. During World War I, she was a munitions worker up until her untimely death of endocarditis (bacterial infection in the heart) on 16 March 1918, at age 29. She is buried in the Wigan Cemetery.


Source Documents


Details

  • Residence: 1891-04-05, 32 Corporation Street, Poolstock, Wigan;

    Per 1891 Census.

  • Residence: 1901-03-31, Pumping Station, Boars Head, Standish; Grandfather's home.

    Alice, age 12, was orphaned and living with grandfather, Joseph, three aunts and siblings.

  • Occupation: 1901-03-31 ; Cotton Weaver.

    Per 1901 Census. Note that Alice was only age 12 .

  • Occupation: 1918-03-16 ; Munitions Worker.

    Per Alice’s Death Certificate.

  • Burial: 1918-03-20, Wigan Cemetery & Crematorium;