The Tragic Death of Young Clara Brown , Milliner's Apprentice, Maidenhead Berkshire

 

 

Monument to Clara Brown, Methodist Church, High Street, Maidenhead Berkshire.

   

"In affectionate remembrance of Clara Brown who fell asleep Feb. 10th 1882 aged 15 years."

 

Clara Brown was born in Maidenhead in 1867 to John Brown, a master butcher and Ann Errington, a milliner (hat maker).

 

Clara first appears on the census in 1871 aged 4 living with her parents and siblings in Maidenhead at 101 High Street.  The family is there in 1881 and the 14-year-old Clara is now a milliner's apprentice. Clara was a student at the Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School in Maidenhead.

 

Sadly, Clara's life was cut short on 10th February 1882. The Maidenhead Advertiser reported on 15h February 1882:

". WESLEYAN SUNDAY SCHOOL - DEATH AND BURIAL OF SCHOLAR.

The somewhat sudden death of a female member of the local Wesleyan Sunday school has been the cause of much sorrow and regret throughout the Methodist community hereabout. The third daughter of Mr. John Brown, of the High-street, was taken with a severe attack of inflammation of the brain on Wednesday morning at four o'clock, and expired at the same hour on Friday morning. She was unconscious from the first, and her decease was startling and unexpected. 

She was a regular attendant at the school, and a gloom hung over the school chapel on Sunday. The depression in the former was augmented by the Superintendent's desk being draped in black. The usual order of the school service was slightly varied. The opening hymn, 

-Death has been here, and borne away

A scholar from our side,- 

was very appropriate; and the prayer was in accord with the solemn event. The account of the death of Lazarius was read instead of the Old Testament lesson, and a suitable address was delivered by Mr. J. W. Walker, in the course of which he urged the scholars to accept the death of their friend as a solemn warning. He also touched on their sorrow at having to lose one of their number, and that of her immediate friends at parting with one to whom they were so closely attached. 

The funeral took place on Monday afternoon, at the Wesleyan chapel. The corpse was brought from the house at 3.50, and borne by four members of Mr. Cleare's Society Class— Messrs. E. Cutler, W. White, F. Pymm. and Menton, while four younger were pall-bearers. The body was followed, in addition to some of the immediate relatives of the deceased, by Mr. R. Walker and Mr. C. Cleare (the school Superintendents), several female teachers, and over forty of the young women of the school, each of whom carried a small bouquet of snowdrops. The body was met by the Rev. W. Thompson, and the service was gone through in the chapel with great solemnity. The sanctuary was crowded with a sympathising congregation. After a suitable voluntary on the organ, by Mr. J. W. Walker, the remains were borne to their last resting place, and the service over, the deceased's friends and schoolmates stepped forward and, with manifest emotion, threw their tokens of affection on the coffin, which had been already covered with wreaths. After an impressive exhortation by the minister, the congregation dispersed. The coffin was covered with mauve cloth, bore the inscription 

"Clara Brown, Died February 10th, aged 15 years." 

The bearers were each with a folding mourning -card. inscribed:— 

Not gone from memory, not gone from love,

But gone to her Father's home above,

on one side, and "In affectionate remembrance of Clara Brown, who fell asleep February 10th, 1882, aged 15 years. Interred at the Wesleyan chapel. February 13th 1882", on the other side. Mr. Woodbridge was the undertaker, and he was represented by Mr. A. Moyse and Mr. G. Hooper." 

 

Clara's stone is no longer in its original place.  In 1973 alterations were made to Maidenhead High Street and the stones were removed and moved closer to the church wall.