Fannie Ethel Lambert

a Horton Cemetery story

Fannie Ethel Lambert was born on Valentine’s Day in 1877 to parents Richard and Fanny, née Death. She was born on St. John’s Hill in Battersea; her father’s occupation was provision dealer (a grocer). Fannie was the youngest of six children.

When the 1881 Census was taken, the family were living on Falcon Lane in Battersea. Fannie was 4 years old. Her father Richard was 48 years old and still a provision dealer, and her mother Fanny was 40 years old. Three of Fannie’s siblings were at home: Henry, aged 12; Mabel, aged 10; and Emma, aged 6. It does not say if her siblings were at school.

By the time of the 1891 Census, the family had remained in Battersea but were now living on Strathblaine Road. Fannie was 14 years old and at school. Her father’s age is transcribed as 56 years old, and his occupation was agent. Fannie’s mother was 50 years old. There were also three of Fannie’s siblings at home, though not the same three who had been at home for the 1881 Census. The eldest was William, aged 26, a draper’s buyer; then Henry, aged 23, a grocer’s assistant; and Mabel, aged 20, a scholar like Fannie.

When the 1901 Census was taken, Fannie, aged 24, had left the family home and was working as a servant, transcribed as a ‘useful help’, for the Howgill family who lived at 106 Grandison Road in Battersea. The Howgill’s were a young couple in their 20s with a 5-year-old son. The master of the house, Richard, was a professor of music.  

Fannie appears to have been healthy during 1901 as she was working. However, on 21 July 1908, she was admitted to Horton Asylum in Epsom.

Not long after her admission, she died aged 31 years on 20 January 1909 at Horton Asylum. Her death certificate gives her profession as a spinster companion help of 19 Northcote Road, Battersea. Her brother Henry is recorded as the informant, and the cause of her death was fatty degeneration of the heart; not the typical reason for being admitted to an Asylum.