Leng, Misses Emma and Minnie, The Balsters, Vicarage Road, Sidmouth
Emma Holgate Leng (1851 – 1934) and Minnie Hannah Leng (1856 – 1929) Leng[1] were two of the six daughters of Joseph Watson Leng and Eliza Leng. They also had three brothers. Emma and Minnie were born in Sculcoates, a Yorkshire village on the outskirts of Hull which during the nineteenth century became absorbed into Hull’s suburbs. In the Post Office Directory for 1857 Joseph Leng is listed as living at 10 Dock Street, Hull. His business was at 15 Saville Street, where he is described as ‘publisher, stationer, print-seller and depository of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge’.
By the time of the 1871 census the family had moved to south London and were living in Camberwell. The eldest daughter, Ellen, was described as Ellen Fourdrier, widow, and living there aged 21 with her three month old daughter Paulette. Paulette remained with her grandparents for the rest of her life and then with Emma and Minnie. In the 1881 census, at a different Camberwell address, Joseph was described as a ‘bookseller manager’. Daughters Lily, Emma, Edith, Minnie and Gertrude are all working as governesses, and sons Alfred and Hilary as stockbrokers’ clerks.
By 1891, now widowed, Joseph was still in Camberwell, aged 71 and described as a publisher. Emma was the only resident daughter, but her niece Paulette was also living there and the resident servant was Caroline Lambourn who was to remain with the family for more than 20 years. Ten years later Joseph, Emma, Paulette and Caroline Lambourn were all living at Springfield Villas, St Ives. Joseph described himself as ‘living on own means’. He died towards the end of 1907.
It appears that Minnie had trained and practised as a nurse before coming down to live with Emma as when the Nursing Register was set up in 1919 she was included on the register, under the regulations that allowed women who had trained and practised before 1899 to register even without a formal certificate. Her Red Cross card refers to her as having received the South African War Medal and, as she has not been found on the 1901 census, it is likely that she was out nursing in South Africa at the time.
After their father’s death Emma and her sister Minnie joined forces and came to live in Sidmouth at The Balsters (or Balusters), a 10-room house on Vicarage Road where they, together with Paulette and Caroline. were living in 1911. Emma and Minnie are described as living on private means. They do not appear to have become greatly involved in Sidmouth society, although there is a reference to a Miss Leng as one of the mourners at the funeral of the Vicar of Sidmouth in September 1913.[2]
It is not entirely clear whether both the Lengs, or Minnie alone, were members of the Sidmouth Branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). A ‘Miss Leng’ is recorded as representing Sidmouth at a meeting of the South West Federation of the NUWSS in 1912.[3] In 1913 Miss M. Leng represented Sidmouth at the Conference of the Provincial Council of the NUWSS,[4] and in 1916 Miss M Leng was re-elected as a Vice-President.[5]
When the First World War broke out, Minnie offered her services straight away to the British Red Cross and, as a trained nurse, received the rank of Sister. Between October 1914 and November 1916 she served for six months on an ambulance train in France, for nine months at No 15 hospital in Alexandria and for six months in Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot .[6] A separate Red Cross card about her service on the ambulance train notes: ‘Did good work but tiresome’.[7]
Minnie Leng died at The Balsters on 30 May 1929, leaving approximately £107; Emma died on 12 March 1934, leaving almost £1900.
Entry created by Julia Neville, November 2018
[1] Family and census information from www.ancestry.co.uk
[2] Western Times (WT), 19 Sep 1913.
[3] WT, 9 Sep 1912.
[4] Devon and Exeter Gazette, 23 May 1913.
[5] WT 5 May 1916.
[6] Red Cross Card available at: https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?sname=leng&id=133020 . Accessed 30 November 2018
[7] Red Cross Card available at: https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?sname=leng&id=133019 Accessed 30 November 2018/