Case 326

The mother was in Dentist's service & only 15 when her child was born [hurriedly] her Master was sent to Lady Lothran's Home [Beckenham] & then on to the Workhouse for her confinement, by her mother when she found the child was under such a bad master. She has since married a Barbers has two children by him, but he has taken a great dislike to his stepson, refuses to let the brother give him food, tunes him out of doors & in drunken fits has taken up the boy a cross his knee & threatened to cut its throat. He is very jealous of her affection for her child. The poor mother is afraid for its life. She says her husband greatly maltreats her for befriending her own child or defending him from the brutality. Her own mother & sister being both in service wd. pay 3/s a week but cannot give the child a home.