🎀The Case Sisters🎀

I found these lovely CDVs late one evening while scrolling through eBay, as you do, or I do anyway. Such a temptation! I saw one named and then looked through the seller’s other photos for sale, and it looked like there were photos of three sisters, Maggie, Louisa and Emmie, I assumed, but wasn’t sure.

After messaging the seller with an offer for the eight I had seen, I was really chuffed she accepted my offer. I do come across some lovely sellers on eBay.

Three sisters with very different lives.

Emma Mary Case.

Emmie Case afterwards Mrs Haines, should be Hames.

Emma Mary Case was born in January 1853 in West Derby, Lancashire. Her father was Robert Case, who was a bookkeeper first, then a stockbroker, and her mother was Esther (McMillan). She married George Henry Hames on 20 February 1879. The couple had no children.

Emma died on 12 April 1901 at the age of 48. Her cause of death was ‘hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver’, the most common cause of this is heavy alcohol consumption, which can cause liver inflammation and damage, eventually leading to cirrhosis. Other causes of cirrosis are Hepatitis B and C viruses can lead to cirrhosis, so can nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It looks like she had been poorly for 2 months before her death.

Emma died at home on 15 April 1901; she was only 48.

Her husband, George Henry Hames, was a well-known General Practitioner of the day with several surgeries. He was born in the spring of 1852 in Leicester, Leicestershire, not Lincolnshire as it says below. His father Francis, was a Saddler and Horse Dealer.

This is his obituary that I found on the Royal College of Surgeons website:

Hames, George Henry ( – 1909) Identifier: RCS: E000007
Full Name: Hames, George Henry. Place of Birth: Lincolnshire
Date of Death: 28 May 1909. Place of Death: London, UK
Occupation: General surgeon. Titles/Qualifications: MRCS April 20th 1875, FRCS June 13th 1878, LRCP Lond 1876.
He entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1871 and distinguished himself there, gaining the Foster Prize in 1872, being Brackenbury Medical Scholar in 1875, and Kirkes’ Scholar and Gold Medallist. He was House Surgeon to G W Callender (qv) in 1875 and House Physician to Reginald Southey in 1876-1877. Meanwhile, in 1873-1874, he was Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons and for some years Hon Secretary of the Abernethian Society. After leaving St Bartholomew’s, he studied at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, was a Chloroformist at the Cheyne Hospital for Children, and Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. He became a well-known practitioner in Mayfair at 29 Hertford Street, 125 Piccadilly, 113 Sloane Street, and died at 11 Park Lane on May 28th, 1909.

Publication:- Hames was a contributor to the Saturday Review.
Author: Royal College of Surgeons of England
Rights: Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date: created: 20 July 2005. Collection: Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Format: Obituary

Louisa Case.

Louisa Case was born in April 1856, registered in Kensington, London. The ninth child of Robert Case and his wife, Esther. Baptised on 24 June 1856 at Saint Marylebone, Marylebone Road, Westminster.

On the 1871 census, Emma had no occupation. By 1881, Louisa, aged 24, was living at 142-143 Roehampton Lane, Putney and was described as a Student Nun at the School of the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

‘Any “Convent of the Sacred Heart” might belong to (or have belonged to)different branches of Catholic religious orders, depending on location and era‘.

1891 finds Louisa was still living in Putney, now a Nun.

1901 finds Louisa living in Preston, Sussex. There was a convent school opened there in 1872 when nuns of the Sacred Heart set up a convent and school on a green-field site outside Brighton/Hove. Louisa was a Teacher in a Convent. Frustratingly, I haven’t found her yet in 1911 or 1921.

Louisa died on 13 April 1932 at the age of 76. I found that she died on the Isle of Wight, so I downloaded her digital death certificate to see where exactly she died. It was at East Dean, Bonchurch, Isle of Wight.

I was now able to find out a little more. There was a “Convent of the Sacred Heart” at East Dene, Bonchurch, on the Isle of Wight (in the parish of Ventnor / Bonchurch) for a time. ‘East Dene’ is a historic marine-villa style mansion built ca. 1824–1826. Then, in about 1904, the estate was bought to serve as a convent school run by the nuns of the Sacred Heart.

The “Convent of the Sacred Heart” at East Dene continued until 1949, when the property was sold and repurposed.

Margaret Case.

I have five different old photos of Maggie, obviously known as ‘Baby’ in the family, as she was the last born of ten children to Robert Case and his wife, Esther.

In 1881, Margaret was still living at home at 27 Inverness Terrace, Paddington. She had no occupation.

Margaret Case was born in 1858 in London. She married Percival La Trobe Harter on 26 January 1887.

Maggie Case, written on the back. Date about late 1870s to early 1880s.

The couple had three children during their marriage.

As you can see, their youngest child, Joan, was just seven when she died. Richard became a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy. Mary Margaret married Cyril Schneider Crofton in 1919; he was a Captain in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) in 1921. The couple had four children.

Maggie’s husband, Percival La Trobe Harter, was born on 25 December 1854 in Cheetham, Lancashire, the son of Mary and James.

Percival was a J P for Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire in 1911. Before this, he seemed to have no occupation other than a Gentleman, living on his own means.