Janet Keighley
Part Time Nursing, Member S.J.A.B.
Janet Keighley was the daughter of John and Martha Keighley nee Holmes, of Whin Knowle, Keighley. They had married at Bingley Parish Church in 1858. John was a worsted weaving overlooker and farmer for most of his adult life. They had a total of seven children – Mary Jane (1859-1876), Thomas Albert (1863-1938), William (1865-1948), John Robert (1873-1955), Charles Ernest (1875-1936) and Herbert Gladstone (1880-1882). I have not found a birth record for Janet, but census records indicate that she was born in 1867 or 1868 in Keighley.
On the census returns for 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 the family lived at Whin Knowle. Janet is without an occupation listed apart from 1891 when she was a ‘farmer’s daughter’.
The 1901 Census - note that her name is mis-transcribed as 'Janette'
By 1911 both of her parents had died, and she was living with her brother Charles Ernest, who worked as a clerk in manufacturing. The 1910 tax valuation records show that their houses (I believe they were numbers 1 and 5 Whin Knowle) were owned by the Duke of Devonshire. Her other siblings had married.
In 1916 Janet began working as a Member of the St. John’s Ambulance Service as a nurse at Spencer Street Auxiliary Hospital. She worked 1172 hours until May 1919. She may have felt a sense of duty, as her nephew, John H. Manby Keighley was serving with the Bradford Pals and then the Cheshire Regiment. He went missing in action in June 1918 after being on leave and for a time was considered a deserter. Sadly, it transpired that he had not deserted but returned to duty and was killed in action.
Janet never married and appears to have lived with her brother William for much of the rest of her life – the electoral rolls show them both at Whin Knowle later in 1930, but by 1947 they had moved to 24 Coronation Mount.
The 1947 Electoral Register
Janet died in the first quarter of 1949, her death was registered in the Worth Valley as the registration district was then known.
Sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 (parents)
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index,1837-1915
1871 England Census
1881 England Census
1891 England Census
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
West Yorkshire, England, Tax Valuation, 1910
England and Wales, Civil Register Death Index, 1916-2007
