Jack

From death to birth to death again. It would be easy to think that the little note from Edith May Morgan came out of a depression. In fact there are far more births (13 of them) than deaths (only 2) recorded in Edith's hand. Yet the second death reads rather sad.

"Jack died Feb 26, 1918, Hereford Hospital. Buried mansel Lacy."

Lower down the page begins a list of births, starting with Edith and her siblings, which continue until page 3. I mentioned that Edith was one of 6 children in the last post, but the count is now 8 excluding Edith's niece and nephew Inez Rose and Richard Griffiths Lunn. Anyhow, 4th in the list of births is:

"John & William, Westmoor Mansel Lacy, Nr Hereford June 20th 1903."

John is, I believe, the 'Jack' who died in 1918 when he was still 14 years old. His older sister Edith would have been 19, and she and Jack's twin William probably took the loss quite hard.

At this point, we have no idea how Jack died. One day no doubt we may obtain his death certificate, but I'd rather have a diary entry or letter from those who survived him. In the grand scheme of things, William did not survive his twin very long: he died in July of 1939, just 36 years old.