| Notes |
- Vernon L Wood was born in 1868 at 3 East Hill Terrace, Wandsworth, London and was attending the non-conformist grammar school in Bishops Stortford (long since absorbed into Bishop's Stortford College), aged 13, at the time of the 1881 census. His family home at the time was 11 Victoria Road, Clapham, Surrey. In adult life, after a period in his 20s as a mercantile clerk, he became a silk merchant. He next appears on the 1891 Census, aged 23, as a visitor at the London home of his future wife, Alice Booker.
In 1895, Vernon Leigh Wood of Stewart Villa, Claremont Road, Highgate was recorded as an elector with a qualifying property at 8 Old Change, Farringdon, adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral (since redeveloped). This was the address of his silk business. He shared the property with William John Garratt of 56 Disraeli Road, Putney and James Joseph Higgins of Hinton Road, Upper Wallington, Surrey. These names and the address are confirmed by a newspaper report in the London Gazette dated 15 Nov 1898 announcing the dissolution of the company (James Higgins, Garratt & Co) and the retirement from that company of Vernon Wood (see below).
It was in the year 1898 that Vernon’s wife, who, by then, was the mother of two small girls, died at the age of 30 while visiting Pevensey in Sussex with her husband. She was six months pregnant at the time. Her death certificate, signed by a Dr Thomas Watson and dated 20 October 1898, records the causes of her death: ‘Hypertrophy of liver, 6 months, eclampsia, 7 hours, exhaustion.’ It adds, ‘Vernon L Wood, widower of deceased, present at the death, 2 Pevensey Bay Villas, Pevensey.’
We can only guess at what happened to Vernon after witnessing the death of his wife and their third child, but the timing of what follows cannot be a coincidence. A month later, on 15th November, the London Gazette contained the following announcement: ‘Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us, the undersigned James Joseph Higgins, William John Garratt and Vernon Leigh Wood, carrying on business as Wholesale Silk Merchants and Agents, at 8, Old Change, in the city of London, under the style or firm of Jas. Higgins Garratt and Co., has been dissolved by mutual consent as and from the 80th day of June, 1898, by the retirement of the said Vernon Leigh Wood. All debts due and owing to or by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said continuing Partners therein. And that in future such business will be carried on by the said James Joseph Higgins and William John Garratt, under the same style or firm as heretofore. Dated this 10th day of November, 1898.’
Part of the mystery of what happened next was solved in the summer of 2013 when Brian Ash, the husband of Vernon’s granddaughter Jean Topping, searching through online records available at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone, came across a reference to a Vernon Leigh Wood in documents relating to the Kent County Lunatic Asylum at Chartham. Further research led to the discovery of the extensive handwritten medical notes taken between his admission to the asylum in October 1901 and his death together with a poor-quality photograph, dated 27 Nov 1901, the only one of him that we have. The records confirm that, by the date of his admission, aged 33, Vernon was a widower and that he was being treated for mental illness exacerbated by excessive drinking. He had been a patient for less than 3 months when he died and was buried on 29th December 1901 in the asylum's burial ground which now sits under a housing estate.
The medical notes, which are quite distressing to read, fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge of what happened in the weeks immediately prior to Vernon’s admission to the asylum. Here are some extracts. Vernon’s presence at 6 Vicarage Crescent, Margate, mentioned below, is confirmed by the 1901 Census. The address, Montpelier Villa, a lodging house run by a widow called Mrs Fanny Carley, is still there in 2025.
‘Age on admission - 33; weight - 9 stone 1 lb; height - 5’ 7.5”; no. of attacks - 1; profession - formerly silk merchant.
‘Cause of insanity - heredity & drink; form of mental disease - mania; having suicidal propensity - no ? ; having family history of intemperance - yes; religious persuasion - N.K. (not known); time insane - 3y, 10m, 9d (i.e. since 1 Jan 1898, almost 11 months before his wife’s death).
‘Brought by (name indecipherable) from 6 Vicarage Crescent, Margate. The Medical Certificate of A W (name illegible) states he is to be operated on for assaulting his landlady; delusions, that he has two houses in London each bringing him in £1,100; asked me why I had come to castrate him as he had never had anything to do with women. That of C.Webb says that Ed Harnet as well as others accuse him of having seduced Ed Harnet’s daughter. He says that (illegible) accuses him of rudeness and wanted me to write at once to (illegible) for £110 that he may give E Harnet £100.
‘History: had an attack of D.T.s (delerium tremens) in Dec.’97 necessitating his being nursed by an attendant for 4 months, has not been clear mentally since, for the past 3 months much worse, deluded that he is the Earl of Arundel, has communicated by letter and wire a lot of nonsense to his brother and others. Has been under treatment for “skin” at the London Hospital, Fitzroy Square as an in-patient. Seems reserved and sullen by nature, of very intemperate habits, is said to have attempted suicide. Married ’92. Wife died of drink ’98. Has two children. Father weak (illegible) over 60, a brother was very intemperate.
‘On admission, has the typical broken down appearance of a man who has been in a better position. Has longish, unkempt, black hair. Face, acneiform rash with some scars (old). Eyes blue, pupils equal, has acneiform rash on chest, bruises on arms, ulcers over each tibia, also old scars. There is slight oedema of legs. His heart sounds are normal, harsh breath sounds are heard over left lower lobe of lung. He will not protrude tongue. He is in a dirty condition.
‘Mentally, is highly nervous, which becomes manifest as physical exam is proceeding. He objects to standing with his back to me for some time that I may examine his posterior chest wall. He thinks that I have to do “something to him”, says I am not the doctor he used to know. Mutters a lot of rubbish (illegible). He is in dread of some impending evil, tries to quote scripture.’
The notes continue with details of the changes in his condition over the following days and weeks and give ample evidence of further mental deterioration despite some improvement in his physical condition under medical care. In mid-December 1901, they conclude:
‘Dec 14. Very feeble. Brother has been communicated with, has written. Dec 15. The movements in hands have ceased, those in the head and neck are not as marked as on the 13th inst. … Died today at 3.10 pm in presence of (name illegible). Cause of death as certified: organic disease of brain. For notes of PM (post mortem) see Register…’
The National Probate Calendar for England and Wales 1858-1995 has the following entry: ‘Vernon Leigh Wood of the County Asylum, Chartham, Kent died 15th of December 1901. Probate 30th January to Russell Howard Wood, chartered accountant: £462 7s 4d.’ Russell Wood was Vernon’s brother, a successful and wealthy chartered accountant. When his brother died, he took responsibility for his two orphaned nieces, Gwendoline and Winifred, and brought them up with the help of his wife, Margaretta Florence, known to her nieces as Aunt Flo.
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1868 - 1901 (33 years)
Census
