Josephine Palmer

Josephine is my grandmother.

She was born Josephine Agnes Loughnan on 13 December 1874 at 3 Slaney Place, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Her parents were James and Mary Loughnan.

Josephine spoke fluent French, and insisted that her children also spoke it at the dinner table. Originally, Josephine was a Governess, which suggests that she came from a reasonably well educated background (although her marriage certificate gives her profession as "salewoman").

Her relations are believed to have run a shop called "O'Learys" near the bridge in Enniscorthy, In the 1911 census, there was a family of O'Learys recorded, who ran a Public House at 20 Market Square.

Josephine moved to Belfast, where she lived in Cooke Street. She married Benjamin Norman Palmer, on 05 August 1900 at the Holy Rosary Church, Belfast, Ireland. She probably moved to Salisbury Street, and then after April 1902, they lived in 39 Sandhurst Gardens, Belfast. About 1903, they moved to 4 Grafton Terrace, Derry, when her husband set up a small accountancy practice in the City. They moved again some time after 1910, to 17 High Street, in the heart of the Bogside. They had five children, Benjamin Gerard, Margaret, Anne and the twins Olive and Martha.

After the death of her husband in 1914, her daughters Margaret and Anne left the convent where they were being educated, and worked in the local shirt factory. Josephine took in needlework to make ends meet. I believe that the family also relied on food parcels from Aunt Stacie in Enniscorthy (possibly Stacie O'Leary, who was recorded in the 1911 census - see above). It is not clear why the family did not move back to Enniscorthy after 1914, or to Benjamin Norman's parents in Dublin.

Josephine came to London with her son Benny in 1936, and lived at 40 Avonmore Road, London W14, where she was known to her grandchildren as "Mamó" (the Irish word for grandmother). Josephine died in the Ducane Hospital, Hammersmith in 1940 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in West London. Unfortunately, much of the Catholic part of the Cemetery was destroyed during the Second World War.