Margaret Brown was born on 1 October 1895, the second of the ten children of Joseph Brown (1869-1927) and Margaret Brown née Mears (1870-1937). Her birth was registered in the Shoreditch registration district.
On 24 October 1895 she was baptised at Christ Church, South Hackney, and the baptismal register shows the family were living at 66 Whiston Road, Haggerston and that her father was a boot finisher.
In the 1901 census she is recorded as living at 5 James Place, Haggerston with her parents, two brothers and a sister. On 24 August 1902 she was admitted into the Maidstone Street School, Audrey Street, London, E2. (In 1951 the Maidstone Street School was renamed to its current name of Sebright School).
The 1911 census states that her occupation was a Curtain Loop Hand (Silk), living at 15 Felix Street, Bethnal Green with her parents and seven of her siblings.
The 1939 England and Wales Register lists her as a London County Council Nurse living at 36 Martello Street, Hackney, the home of her sister, Ethel Ada Catherine Elliot née Brown (1913-1967) and brother-in-law, Alfred E. Elliot (1912-1957).
She died, aged 45 years, on 10 October 1940 as a result of a German air raid and she was buried on 16 October 1940 in Newham. Administration of her estate was granted on 16 May 1941 to a younger sister, Rose Marvell née Brown (1903-1983) and her elder brother, Joseph William Brown (1894-1974). Probate records confirm that her address remained at 36 Martello Street, Hackney and that she died at The London Fever Hospital, Liverpool Road, Islington. Her effects totalled £348-4s-2d.
She is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour, located outside the entrance to St. George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey, London. Confusingly, these records states she died at St Matthew's Hospital on 10 October 1940.
Together with Sophia Olive Witchalls and Mary O'Neill Dowell she is commemorated on a wooden plaque that is now housed in St Bartholomew's Hospital Archives and Museum, West Smithfield, London, EC1A 7EB. This plaque adds to the confusion by stating that she died at St Matthew's Hospital on 8 October 1940. This hospital was at 79 Shepherdess Walk, London, N1 and was hit with high explosive bomb that killed 50 male patients, 33 female patients and 3 nurses on 8 October 1940. It is therefore probable that she was mortally injured at St Matthew's Hospital and died two days later in The London Fever Hospital.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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