Sr Rosamund

Our lives are so much more than the bare facts, which is something that can be most frustrating when researching past Sisters. Take Sr Rosamund, for instance (the first of that name, for those who have known the Community for a while!). I know plenty of information about her:  I know something of what she did, and where she lived, but none of that tells me who she was. I have just one line from the Community Diary: “She was the most beloved Sister in the Community”. That is all, although it does say much.  

Born in Nottinghamshire in September 1857, Rosamund Elizabeth Miller was the second daughter of George and Eliza Miller. By 1861, the family live in Islington and Rosamund was one of four daughters; George works as clerk to a Confectioner’s. George and Eliza would eventually have at least 9 children. Confusingly, Rosamund is not registered with them in 1861, and I cannot find where she is. I assume she may have been staying with family. She is there in 1871, aged 13, living with her family in Chislehurst, Bromley, Kent. George’s occupation is given as ‘chiefly dependent on the interest of money’, which seems slightly up the social scale from a clerk. He is earning enough to employ a governess and three live-in servants. Still in Chislehurst in 1881, George is registered there with his three older daughters; another daughter, aged 19, is registered with her mother in Oxford. I haven’t followed through on the rest of Rosamund’s siblings. Her mother, Eliza, died in 1889 in Somerset, and it seems likely the family moved there at some point before her death as in 1891 George is living near Frome, Somerset. His occupation is retired Accountant, and he is there with two daughters, the oldest and the third oldest. Rosamund is not there, neither can I find where she is. In 1901, George is still there, still with two (slightly different) daughters, neither of them Rosamund. However, by now I know where she is, for we know Sr Rosamund was Professed as a choir Sister in the Community of All Hallows at some point in January 1897. From the data we have, it seems likely that she came to us during 1895.

From here on, I know where she is in every Census, and in several electoral rolls, although it does not necessarily tell me what she was doing. She was registered in the Community House in 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1939. In the late 1890s and through until about 1915, the electoral roll has her in the Scudamore Memorial Wing; from 1918 until 1931, it places her in the Community House. Now it is important to say that the Census and the electoral roll do not necessarily disagree. The Scudamore Memorial Wing is attached to the Community House; built in memory of our first Warden, William Scudamore, it was the home for our Third Order, and later became a Guest House (known as Holy Cross House). Both the 1911 and the 1921 Census include this in the Community House, although it is true that in 1901, only Sr Adeline is registered there along with the Third Order. Nevertheless, it does hint that Sr Rosamund may have worked with the Third Order, alongside Sr Adeline, although it is equally possible she may have just had a room there. But all this does not give me anything specific to indicate the kind of work she did. That it wasn’t in any of the ‘outside’ works is obvious from her residence; it seems she may have spent her time in more Community focussed work, but I have no idea what that may have been.

We do know one other fact: Rosamund Miller was an Associate of the Community, before withdrawing to join as a choir Sister. I haven’t noted when she joined, although her name is on a list of withdrawn Associates. This gives the impression that she is one of several women who were drawn to the Religious Life, and initially became Associates. There were others who also withdrew to join Communities, not always ours. Whether this was a stage on her journey, or whether she was unable to become a Sister at first, I do not know. What is clear is that she joined us some years after her mother’s death, but before her father’s, so while there may have been some family commitment to prevent her, it was not only this. Interestingly, at some point after their father’s death, Susan, the sister next in age to Rosamund, joined the Sisterhood of the Sisters of the Servants of Christ, where she stayed until her death in 1931. This is by no means the only family where more than one daughter has joined a Religious Community, and may give some indication as to the family’s spirituality.

Sr Rosamund died at 3.45am on December 18^th 1940 aged 83, after 45 years in the Community [dating from her Clothing]. She was, as mentioned above, the most beloved Sister in the Community – or so the Sister writing the Community Diary said.  She was buried two days after her death in the ‘CAH’ section of Ditchingham Cemetery. That ‘most beloved’ comment does infer a lot about her character, but possibly also places her fairly centrally in the Community, as we have inferred, unlike other Sisters, who spent much of their years in Community working in branch houses. That some of them were equally beloved and missed is clear from eulogies written by those they worked with. But whatever Sr Rosamund did, and whatever her character was like, we can take away one fact from her story: our lives, like hers, are far more than the ‘bare facts’ about us; and who we are, like Sr Rosamund, is rooted in the most basic fact: that we are created by, and beloved of, our God.

Community House c 1897