Walter SMITH

Walter SMITH was born in 1843 and was admitted to the pauper farm in Tooting at about age 5.

His date of death is unknown. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but we are actively searching records for further information.

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Fact file on Walter SMITH

Walter had siblings, who would most likely have been admitted and discharged at the same time:

brother: SMITH Frederick born 1839
brother: SMITH James born 1836

Born: 1843
First recorded entry:
transfer from Clerkenwell Workhouse to Tooting
04-Sep-1848
Last recorded entry:
from Tooting to Clerkenwell Workhouse
23-Dec-1848
Outcome: Survived the epidemic
Died: unknown

Workhouses and pauper farms

During the 1840s and 1850s, workhouses were often places of hardship, where children such as Walter were sent due to difficult circumstances including poverty and family bereavements. The workhouse system was known for its strict rules and conditions, offering only the barest of necessities in exchange for hard labour.

The Tooting pauper home was not in itself a workhouse, but a private institution to which numerous London workhouses 'farmed out' children. The condition of many children living and working in the Tooting establishment is known to have been pitiful even before cholera broke out there.