Hi there,
sent you an email yesterday. Did you receive it?
Margaret Mitchell LEYS born Calcutta 1889, married there 1911...
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Re: Margaret Mitchell LEYS born Calcutta 1889, married there 1911...
Ah no. Nothing in my inbox not even in junk. Maybe pm me your address and I'll email you.
Researching Mitchell Grassick Bowman Farquharson Wilson Allanach Leys Coutts Gauld McNerney from Crathie and Braemar, Strathdon and Glenbuchat and who moved on to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada.
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Re: Margaret Mitchell LEYS born Calcutta 1889, married there 1911...
Would you please pass the following information on to anyone interested in this group? I belong to a volunteer organisation that tells the story of people who died, were cremated or buried at Woodman Point, Western Australia. doddgail6@gmail.com. Here is a newsletter article I have just written about Margaret for Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp (Inc). Thank you.
Margaret Mitchell Golden (nee Leys)
Twenty-seven-year-old Margaret Golden died at Wooroloo Sanatorium on 13 April 1918. Her body was transported to Woodman Point Quarantine Station for cremation and burial there the next day. She was a victim of leprosy. Leprosy does not cause flesh to rot or fingers and toes to drop off. In the past, limbs that have been damaged because the person cannot feel pain have sometimes had to be amputated.
Margaret was brought up in India as part of an English military family, mainly in Calcutta and educated in the Bengal hill stations. She was born in Calcutta in 1890, went to England from 1897-1898, and returned to Calcutta from 1898-1911. Between 1902-1906, she spent nine months each year at college in the hill stations. In 1908, at the age 18, the first signs of leprosy became apparent. She sought out medical advice in Calcutta.
The Times of India, August 28, 1911;
MARRIAGE.
GOLDEN—LEYS—August 12th, at St. Andrew’s Church, Calcutta, by the Rev. Geo. J. Chree, Fred. A. Golden, eldest son of Frederick Golden, of Ilford Essex, England to Marguerite, only daughter of the late William Leys, of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Margaret married Frederick Alfred Golden after her father’s death and lived in England, Singapore, and finally Western Australia. She arrived on the Gorgon on 2 July 1914 with her husband and baby son, Terence Eric. Sadly, that year she was eventually diagnosed with leprosy and her six-month-old baby died on 22 October. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery in the Anglican section.
Leprosy is not highly infectious, and it is not known how the disease is transmitted. It is thought likely that leprosy is spread from person to person in respiratory droplets (droplets expelled from the nose and mouth, for example when an infected person coughs or sneezes). In cases of leprosy in children under one year of age, it is thought possible that the infection may have been transmitted from the mother via the placenta.
The loss of Margaret's son must have been heart-wrenching. She and her nurse were removed and isolated at Wooroloo reserve in temporary buildings, then two new buildings were authorised to be built for the women. The temporary buildings were burnt to the ground and Margaret’s Cottesloe home was fumigated. Its beds and bedding were also destroyed by fire.
Four lepers were known to be living at Woodman Point over the years. Two were sent away, to Jerejak Island, an islet of the eastern coast of Penang Island (formerly the main leper asylum for the Straits Settlement and a former quarantine station). Three (including Margaret) were cremated and their ashes were interred in the quarantine station’s original cemetery.
[end]
I have not been able to determine what happened to Margaret's husband.
Sourced from the SRO online records of the International Leprosy Association – History of Leprosy (available at: https://leprosyhistory.org/database/archive742)
SRO Sources within text:
ACC 1003, 165 1916 Title: Leprosy: case at St Leonard's St Cottesloe Beach, Mrs M Golden. (General correspondence)
ACC 689, AN 453/34, 1804/16; 1095/45, 1934 Title: Wooroloo Sanatorium, Erection of Cottages for Leprosy Patients.
This is her shipping arrival record: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchN ... 63&T=P&S=1
Her baby son's death registration:
Golden Terence Eric M 6 months Frederick Alfred GOLDEN Margaret Mitchell LEYS Subiaco 1914 Subiaco 5900191 1914
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82530595 - Leper Lazaret at Wooroloo
Margaret Mitchell Golden (nee Leys)
Twenty-seven-year-old Margaret Golden died at Wooroloo Sanatorium on 13 April 1918. Her body was transported to Woodman Point Quarantine Station for cremation and burial there the next day. She was a victim of leprosy. Leprosy does not cause flesh to rot or fingers and toes to drop off. In the past, limbs that have been damaged because the person cannot feel pain have sometimes had to be amputated.
Margaret was brought up in India as part of an English military family, mainly in Calcutta and educated in the Bengal hill stations. She was born in Calcutta in 1890, went to England from 1897-1898, and returned to Calcutta from 1898-1911. Between 1902-1906, she spent nine months each year at college in the hill stations. In 1908, at the age 18, the first signs of leprosy became apparent. She sought out medical advice in Calcutta.
The Times of India, August 28, 1911;
MARRIAGE.
GOLDEN—LEYS—August 12th, at St. Andrew’s Church, Calcutta, by the Rev. Geo. J. Chree, Fred. A. Golden, eldest son of Frederick Golden, of Ilford Essex, England to Marguerite, only daughter of the late William Leys, of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Margaret married Frederick Alfred Golden after her father’s death and lived in England, Singapore, and finally Western Australia. She arrived on the Gorgon on 2 July 1914 with her husband and baby son, Terence Eric. Sadly, that year she was eventually diagnosed with leprosy and her six-month-old baby died on 22 October. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery in the Anglican section.
Leprosy is not highly infectious, and it is not known how the disease is transmitted. It is thought likely that leprosy is spread from person to person in respiratory droplets (droplets expelled from the nose and mouth, for example when an infected person coughs or sneezes). In cases of leprosy in children under one year of age, it is thought possible that the infection may have been transmitted from the mother via the placenta.
The loss of Margaret's son must have been heart-wrenching. She and her nurse were removed and isolated at Wooroloo reserve in temporary buildings, then two new buildings were authorised to be built for the women. The temporary buildings were burnt to the ground and Margaret’s Cottesloe home was fumigated. Its beds and bedding were also destroyed by fire.
Four lepers were known to be living at Woodman Point over the years. Two were sent away, to Jerejak Island, an islet of the eastern coast of Penang Island (formerly the main leper asylum for the Straits Settlement and a former quarantine station). Three (including Margaret) were cremated and their ashes were interred in the quarantine station’s original cemetery.
[end]
I have not been able to determine what happened to Margaret's husband.
Sourced from the SRO online records of the International Leprosy Association – History of Leprosy (available at: https://leprosyhistory.org/database/archive742)
SRO Sources within text:
ACC 1003, 165 1916 Title: Leprosy: case at St Leonard's St Cottesloe Beach, Mrs M Golden. (General correspondence)
ACC 689, AN 453/34, 1804/16; 1095/45, 1934 Title: Wooroloo Sanatorium, Erection of Cottages for Leprosy Patients.
This is her shipping arrival record: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchN ... 63&T=P&S=1
Her baby son's death registration:
Golden Terence Eric M 6 months Frederick Alfred GOLDEN Margaret Mitchell LEYS Subiaco 1914 Subiaco 5900191 1914
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82530595 - Leper Lazaret at Wooroloo