Case 6135

G

Male

At the time of the application G's mother had been dead for 8 years. His father was described as "a very unnatural parent". He did not care for his children. When he was young he had got into company above his station and had been led astray. After the death of his first wife he had married again and had two children with his second wife. His second wife had left him and gone to live with his sister for protection. The father had gone to the house "to annoy her" and had behaved "like a madman" when the Vicar tried to persuade him to leave. The grandparents (the father's parents) were very respectable people and had practically brought the children up. The older girls had not, in the Vicar's opinion, looked after their grandparents as they should have done. The eldest girl had left to get married and refused to do anything to support her younger brothers. One of G's aunts was very supportive of her parents but the other aunts were in poor health and one of them had heart disease and had not worked for fifteen weeks. The grandparents had been "put to endless expense through the evil doings of this boy's father". They now felt that they could do no more and if they were unable to get the boy into an institution they would send him back to his father. G. was admitted to the Rochdale Home on 2 October 1897. He remained there until 7 March 1899 when he went into service with a barber at Leyland, Lancashire.