Sr Elizabeth Davis

There are times when I look at the information I have for a Sister and wonder if it is correct. Sr Elizabeth, the second person to take that name, is a case in point. Born Elizabeth Davis, all the information I had for her family was under ‘Davies’, a subtle difference. Was this just a case of misspelling the name, had I got the wrong family or was it my mistake? Further research proved it to be my mistake. The census data definitely referred to ‘Davis’, but for some reason I had added an extra ‘e’. My research did find extra information, although some is proving more difficult.

Born in 1869 in Llandough, Elizabeth’s parents, Thomas and Rosa Julia Davis, were both born in England. I am assuming that it was Thomas’ job, working for HM Customs, that brought the family to Wales, especially as they married in London in 1854. Their first child, Mary, was born around 1860 in Monmouthshire, but by 1863 they had moved to Glamorgan, where second child, Francis, was born.  They stayed in this area for several years, although not necessarily in the same place. Francis was born in Canton, whereas the next two children, Katherine (1868) and Elizabeth (1869) were both born in Llandough, which is also near Cardiff. Of course, I do not know if the children were born at home, so it is possible they lived in Canton throughout these years. It is a fact that the 1871 Census places them in Romilly Crescent, Canton. After 1871, it gets confusing. My initial search for Elizabeth found her in 1881, aged 11, registered with her uncle and aunt John and Elizabeth Davis, their older sons, and another niece (Jessie, aged 12), who was born in South Africa. Also in the household is a governess, presumably for the two girls. I thought it possible that Jessie might be living with her uncle while her parents were abroad, but I have not checked this out. Was Elizabeth also living there, or was she staying there temporarily? The Census does not often give this information. However, despite a thorough search, I could find no trace of Thomas and Rosa beyond 1871. Neither can I find Francis. However, on that second search, I did find Katherine. Registered as Katie, she, too, is with an uncle, Edmund Wheeler, and his 9 year old daughter. I cannot be certain where Mary was, but a Mary Davis, with the correct details, was working as a Nurse in London in 1881. What happened in the intervening ten years? Had both Thomas and Rosa died, leaving their children to be cared for by relatives? I have not found anything that I can say with certainty to explain this; it is equally possible that Thomas may have been working abroad.

What is certain is that all four children needed to earn their own living, making it more likely that Nurse Mary in 1881 is Elizabeth’s older sister. Even here, I am extrapolating from the data. By 1891, both Katherine and Elizabeth were working in schools as governesses: Katherine in a boarding school in Hackney, teaching music, and Elizabeth at All Hallows Orphanage, Ditchingham. Those of you who read this regularly may realise that this was one of the Community’s works. The Orphanage took in girls ‘of the upper classes’ who had lost one or both parents, but also took boarders for education. The latter paid more than the former, and governesses worked alongside the Sisters. Most of the girls at the Orphanage needed to earn their own living, so their education was vital. There was a cottage alongside the Orphanage for working class girls, but the Census implies that Elizabeth was working in the Orphanage, not the cottage. This was an exciting discovery, as we often do not know how a Sister came into contact with CAH, but in this case it seems likely that Elizabeth took the post of governess, and that her vocation grew out of that.

What we do not know is how long Elizabeth worked for the Community before joining, or even when she joined. She was professed on St Thomas Day 1893, which at that point would have been in December. As a choir Sister, she would have had a 2 year Novitiate, which takes us back to 1891. It seems likely that she must have joined not long after the Census was taken in April. Sr Anna, a lay Sister professed on the same day, would have had a longer Novitiate, and the information we have suggests she joined in the late 1880s. Whatever the facts, Sr Elizabeth was also working at the Orphanage in 1901, but at some point in the next decade moved to the Community House, where she remained. Probably. She is registered there in both the 1911 and the 1921 census, but is at the Orphanage in the 1910 and 1912 electoral register, which I have not noted for every year. From 1920, she is solidly at the Community House even in the electoral register, and it seems likely that by then this was her home. Unusually, we do have some sense of what work she did. In the Community Diary for 1944, it states that she resigned the post of Choir Mistress after 24 years, owing to ill health. As Choir Mistress, she may have been responsible for the Orphanage choir, but her main responsibility would have been the Sisters singing the Offices [services]. Whether this post involved choice of music, which of the Sisters played the organ, I do not know. I find it interesting to compare this work with the fact that her sister Katherine was, in 1891, a Music governess. This implies that the Davis family had musical gifts, which both the younger siblings were able to use well.

What else do we know about her? I am fairly sure that it was Sr Elizabeth whom Sr Violet had a memory of using a bath chair [an early wheel chair]; I gather she was rather a menace! This memory of a memory is supported by that statement about her ill health in the Community Diary. Sr Elizabeth died in August 1948, after a week in bed. She had received Communion two days before she died. She must have been one of the last Sisters to be buried in the CAH patch of Ditchingham cemetery, before we started using our own in 1949. While much of Sr Elizabeth’s history is lost in the past, it seems clear that, despite or due to a possible disrupted childhood, she was able to find fulfilment in the Community, and to use her gifts in God’s service. The offering of her life to God did not stop when she had to relinquish her work, but was brought to fulfilment during those last years; the offering of ourselves is total, and does not depend on how much we are able to do.

[Sr Elizabeth pictured with Sr Lenora; I think Sr Elizabeth is the one behind]