Drinkwater plot

Location

Plot number (FHS)	1034
Row	2
Section	40
Date

......

Drinkwater plot

Plot number:
2,40
Family name:
Drinkwater
Burial date:

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Who is buried here?

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Leslie Bede Drinkwater

1928 –15/07/1936

Died at age 8 years; not clear why buried in Berkhamsted

1928 –15/07/1936

Died at age 8 years; not clear why buried in Berkhamsted

Research:

Melanie Hilton

Plot 1034 Leslie Bede Drinkwater (1928-1936)

Leslie was born in 1928 in the Henley registration district to Edward G Drinkwater, a farm manager and Winifred (née Trevor).

Little Leslie died on 15 July 1936 aged only 8 at Cell Barnes Colony. This was a 600-bed institution near St Albans which opened in 1933 under the auspices of the County Council. It was not intended as a hospital for those suffering from what we would now recognise as mental illness, but for those with a wide range of learning difficulties to which names we now find deeply offensive were attached. For a child to be admitted it meant that they were considered incapable of receiving normal schooling.

It has not been possible to trace the whereabouts of the family at the time of Leslie’s short life, but two hundred of the beds were available to non-Hertfordshire residents, so it may be that it was felt to be the best place for him although he was not a Hertfordshire resident. However, this does not explain why he was buried in this town.

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