Life as a domestic servant could be very varied according to your position. Wealth and occupation of the owners of the residence would have played a big part too.
The first reference I find to my grandmother's working life was in a newspaper article in 1904 when she was a witness to a theft. It stated she was a parlourmaid and residing at Wilberforce House, Denmark Place, Hastings.
In the 1911 census, aged 23, she was a parlourmaid and single in the home of Major General Henry De Brett in Earls Avenue Folkestone, who had served in the Bengal Staff Corps. Job adverts at the time indicate that the wages were about £18-£20 per annum.
In 1921 I found her on the census as a housemaid and single at Oak Lea, Hastings, in the home of Sir Mackworth Young, KCSI (Kings Commander of the Order of the Star of India) who had been in the Indian Civil Service and retired as the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in 1902). Wages would have been about £25 per annum.
In the Sept 1939 register, at the start of World War II she was a
parlourmaid at Chester Lodge, Brankscome Road, Hastings, Sussex in the
employment of a Margaret J Mitchell, widow of private means. A couple of months later in November,
Her National Identity Card showed three more addresses, the last being Salisbury Road, Hastings which was the rooms she was living in before she went to the care home where she died.
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| 24 Salisbury Road, top floor, house on left. Google 2023 |
The picture above is of a much improved property and wouldn't be the draughty and cold property it was back after the war!!
She had a lifetime of service to others but in her later life was living in somewhat reduced surroundings to those she had been used to serving. She had several things which had obviously been given to her from places she had served as well as a special bible.......more to show another day.
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