Sarah Pagdin
Nursing, First Officer St. John's Ambulance Brigade
Sarah Pagdin was the daughter of Edmund Pagdin, an engine tenter from Ackworth near Wakefield, and Elizabeth Pagdin nee Hardaker from Leeds. Sarah's birth, on 10th February 1887, was registered in Ackworth, and she was baptised there at St. Cuthbert's Church on 27th March the same year.
The baptism record of Sarah Pagdin
By 1891 the family had moved to Stanbury. Edmund was working as a steam chain driver. They had four daughters at this time - Ada (10), Hannah (9), Mary (7) and Sarah who was 5.
In 1901 they lived at 1 Lumbfoot in Stanbury. Edmund was working as an engine tenter again, at a worsted mill. Ada was a worsted twister, and Hannah, Mary and Sarah were worsted spinners. They had a younger brother, Thomas William, who was 9 years old. They also had a boarder, 16-year-old Elizabeth Haddon who was a worsted spinner.
The Pagdin family shown on the 1901 census
By the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to Castlefields House in Bingley and had reduced somewhat. Sarah's oldest sister had died in 1901 at the age of 20, and Mary had married in 1908. Sarah and Hannah were working as weavers, Edmund still an engine tenter, and Thomas was a fireman (stoker). He had joined the military in 1908, with 6th Battalion West Riding Regiment, but left in 1913 so doesn't appear to have served during the First World War.
Sarah was a First Officer with the St. John's Ambulance Brigade and worked voluntarily in nursing at Keighley War Hospital from January 1917 until June 1919. One of the other VADs, Dorothy Collins, also lived at Castlefields and worked at the same war hospital, so I can imagine that they may have been friends, working and traveling together.
It seems that Sarah never married. She was living at 1 Aire Street in Crossflatts and still working in the worsted industry as a textile drawer at the time of the 1939 Register and her sister Hannah lived with her, she was described as incapacitated.
The 1939 England and Wales Register
Hannah died in 1944 and Sarah appears to have spent the rest of her life living at 1 Aire Street, though when she died on 18th September 1962 she was presumably on holiday, at North Wood Hotel in Eastbourne.
Sources:
England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 183-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1935
1891 England Census
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
UK, British Army World War 1 Service Records,1914-1920
1939 England and Wales Register
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
England and Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-1911
England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
