Military Asylum

[jorose]

The birth of the son in 1883 might give you some clues.

Certainly if you look on the turn of the century maps at booth.lse.ac.uk, you'll see Gawthorne Street (no longer there) was near Fairfield Road, and very near the Asylum (on Fairfield Road). So his wife seems to have been staying near, at least originally; were there relatives in Salford who she might have been going to be near (maybe short on money - even if she was getting something from the army, it wouldn't have been a great deal).

I don't know if there are specific records for Grove Hall, but on the LMA website I can find records from Poplar Board of Guardians - POBG/165/01 and POBG/165/02 are registers of lunatics in asylums that cover some years when he would have been in Bow.  POBG/155/02 and POBG/155/03 are copies of 'lunatic reception orders' from Bow district around the time that Henry Johnson might have been transferred into the area. These would be original records, not microfilmed, so if you or somebody else goes to LMA to take a look you should ring ahead to check they have these on site and that they are able to be viewed.  They might be able to advise you on other records.

[scoobeuk]

Thank you so much for those details, thats really helpful.

As for Salford, one of my Gt Gt Granmothers sisters married a pendleton man late in 1871.  Can't find either of them early in 1871, but I have been told there was an army base near the birth place in Kent, so that might explain them meeting.  Doesn't look like "money", husband was French Polisher in 1881,  one other sister was living with them, then my gt gt gran also turns up in salford, leaving parents and other siblings back in Kent.

There was plentiful work in Salford at the time, and the Kent family was very poor, (Gt Gt Gt Grandmother was an outdoor pauper at the end of her life, and died in the workhouse, just shy of being 80)   so I can understand one sister following to Salford, and I guess even if there was work in London at the time, with none of her family there (both Henrys parents were dead by then, but, his siblings were doing very nicely), work would be difficult with small children in tow.  Still seems so sad to leave the husband behind in that state, but, different times I guess, none of the help we take for granted now.

Anyway, many many thanks for that info, London Archives seem to be back online, so I'll contact them about using their research service to get the records, too far away for me to do in person, and of everyone in my tree, my gt gt grandad has intrigued me the most, maybe because he has been so elusive for so long, when everyone else was so relatively easy to find, and the more I find out about him, the more I'm intrigued.

Thank you so much, I'm nearer now than I've ever been to getting the answers to what happened to him, I hope, touch wood etc etc!