A Life of Family, Hard Work and Heartbreak
A family rooted in Monkwearmouth
Thomas Laidler was born on 3 November 1882 at 1 The Causeway, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, the son of Thomas Laidler and Sarah Alcock. Just a few weeks later, on 29 November, he was baptised at St Peter’s Church, a historic landmark that had stood at the heart of the local community for centuries.
Thomas entered the world during a period when Sunderland was flourishing as an industrial town. The River Wear was busy with ships, and the surrounding streets were home to families whose lives revolved around shipbuilding, engineering, glassmaking and the many trades that supported these industries. Monkwearmouth was a place of hard work, where the sounds of workshops and shipyards formed part of everyday life.
Thomas spent his childhood among these familiar streets. In the 1891 census, eight-year-old Thomas was recorded as a scholar, living at 12 Barrington Street in a household of nine people. Like many children of working families, his early years would have been shaped by the close-knit neighbourhood around him and the expectations that he would eventually learn a trade and earn his living.
By 1901, Thomas was eighteen and living at 51 Millum Terrace. He was no longer simply a schoolboy; he was an apprentice blacksmith, beginning the working life that would define much of his future.
Learning a trade in industrial Sunderland
Blacksmithing was an essential occupation in a town built around heavy industry. It required strength, skill and patience, as iron and steel were heated until workable and then shaped with hammer and anvil. Blacksmiths made and repaired metal components, tools and equipment used in workshops, factories, engineering works and shipyards.
Thomas would have spent his apprenticeship learning from experienced tradesmen, developing the practical skills needed to work confidently with metal. It was demanding work, often carried out in hot, noisy workshops, but a skilled tradesman could provide a steady living for his family.
As Sunderland’s shipbuilding and engineering industries expanded, workers such as Thomas played an important part in keeping machinery and production moving. His later employment with Richardson & Westgarth at Scotia Engineering Works, Low Street, Sunderland, shows how his career became connected with the town’s engineering industry.
It was in this world of work and familiar neighbourhoods that Thomas began building a life of his own.
Thomas and Hannah begin their family
Around October 1905, Thomas married Hannah Harrison in Sunderland. Hannah had been born on 25 March 1885, the daughter of Richard Matthew Harrison and Sarah Bainbridge.
Hannah had grown up in Monkwearmouth too. As a little girl, she lived at 40 Huddleston Street, and by the 1901 census she was sixteen and living at 30 Hedworth Street. Her early years, like Thomas’s, were spent among the streets and working families of Sunderland.
Their marriage brought two young people together at a time when life was centred on family, work and the home. Thomas had a skilled trade to pursue, while Hannah took on the considerable responsibilities of running a household and raising their children.
By August 1910, the couple were living at 3 Back Barrington Street. Their daughter Frances Ann was born there on 6 July 1910, giving the family a lasting connection to this address.
The following year, the census recorded Thomas and Hannah living at 21 Hardwicke Street. Thomas was working as a blacksmith in engineering works, while Hannah, aged twenty-six, was caring for their young family. The census noted that they had been married for five years and had two children, both still living.
Their family was growing, and life would have revolved around the everyday routines familiar to working households: earning a living, preparing meals, keeping the home in order and caring for the children.
For Thomas, work in the engineering trade would have meant long hours and physical effort. For Hannah, looking after a growing family was a full-time responsibility in itself. Domestic work in the early twentieth century was labour-intensive, with washing, cooking and cleaning largely done without the modern conveniences that later generations would take for granted.
Thomas: A Brother as Well as a Husband and Father
Thomas was not only a skilled blacksmith and a devoted family man; he also played a part in the lives of his wider family. His name appears as a witness at the marriages of his sisters, Phillis Laidler and Sarah Laidler.
On 16 September 1905, Thomas witnessed the marriage of James Balcombe and his sister Phillis at the Venerable Bede Church in Monkwearmouth. Later, on 16 June 1917, he was again present as a marriage witness, this time for his sister Sarah Laidler and Edward Bamborough at St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth.
These occasions offer a glimpse of Thomas’s life beyond his work and his own household. Marriage was an important milestone, bringing families together and marking the beginning of a new chapter. By standing as a witness for his sisters, Thomas was present at two significant moments in their lives.
The churches themselves were familiar landmarks in the community where the Laidler family had grown up. St Peter’s, where Thomas had been baptised as a baby in 1882, held a particularly personal connection to his family history. More than three decades later, he returned there to witness his sister Sarah’s marriage.
These small details help bring Thomas’s story to life. Alongside his years of skilled work and the responsibilities of raising his own children, he remained connected to his brothers and sisters, sharing in the important occasions that helped bind the wider family together.
Life at Millum Terrace
By 1920, Thomas and Hannah had settled at 53 Millum Terrace, Monkwearmouth. This address would become one of the most significant places in their family history, associated with both the arrival of children and some of their saddest losses.
In the 1921 census, Thomas was recorded as an engineers’ blacksmith employed by Richardson & Westgarth at Scotia Engineering Works on Low Street. At thirty-eight, he had developed a trade that supported the household, while Hannah, aged thirty-six, was recorded as undertaking home duties. Six people were listed in their household.
The engineering works were part of the industrial network that supported Sunderland’s maritime economy. Engines, machinery and metal components were essential to shipbuilding and other industries, and skilled workers were needed to manufacture, maintain and repair them.
Thomas’s work connected him to this busy industrial world, while home life continued at Millum Terrace. As the family grew, there would have been plenty to occupy Hannah’s days. The household was a place where children were welcomed, cared for and watched as they took their first steps in life.
Thomas and Hannah had eight children: Sarah Alcock, Frances Ann, Thomas, Ellen, William Scott, James Edward, Hannah and Hannah Harrison.
Yet the family story was not one of uninterrupted happiness. Alongside the ordinary milestones of childhood and family life came losses that would have brought deep sorrow to their home.
The children who died too soon
Thomas and Hannah experienced the heartbreak of losing three children while they were still very young.
Their son William Scott Laidler died in May 1920 at 53 Millum Terrace, aged just seven months. Only a few months later, in August 1920, their daughter Ellen Laidler, died at the same address. She was only three years old.
To lose two children within such a short period must have been devastating. Their home, which should have been filled with the sounds of growing children, would instead have been marked by grief and the absence of two little lives.
Then, in February 1924, another daughter named Hannah died at 53 Millum Terrace. She was just one month old.
The loss of a baby was a sorrow many families faced in an age when infant mortality remained a serious concern. Medical care and understanding of childhood illness were more limited than they are today, and families could find themselves powerless against conditions that modern medicine can often treat.
The records do not tell us the causes of death for these three children, so it is not possible to say what illnesses or circumstances led to their deaths. What the records do preserve is their names, their brief lives and the family home in which they died.
Their youngest daughter, Hannah Harrison Laidler, was born in January 1929. The fact that the family used the name Hannah again after the death of their infant daughter is part of their family story, although the records do not explain why the name was chosen.
A new generation grows up
By September 1939, Thomas and Hannah were living at 25 Yorke Street, Sunderland. Thomas was fifty-seven and still working as a blacksmith, while Hannah, aged fifty-four, was recorded as undertaking unpaid domestic duties.
Their youngest daughter, Hannah, was ten years old. She was growing up in a town shaped by generations of industrial labour, with the River Wear, its shipyards and engineering works still central to Sunderland’s identity.
Thomas had spent almost two decades working as a blacksmith by this point, and his occupation represented a lifetime of practical skill and hard work. Hannah had devoted many years to caring for their family, supporting their children through childhood and enduring the grief of losing three of them.
The 1930s brought economic uncertainty to many industrial communities across Britain. Shipbuilding and engineering were important to Sunderland, but industries dependent on large contracts and changing demand could also face difficult periods. The family records do not establish how these wider economic conditions affected the Laidlers personally, but their lives unfolded within this changing industrial landscape.
By the end of the decade, their children were growing older, and the family was moving into a new stage of life. Yet the future would bring another devastating loss.
Hannah Harrison Laidler
Hannah Harrison Laidler was born on 3 January 1929 in Sunderland. As the youngest of Thomas and Hannah’s children, she grew up in a family that had already known the sorrow of losing three young children.
Hannah eventually married Dennis Rugman around January 1952. Dennis worked as a glassblower at the Wear Glass Works of James A. Jobling & Co. Ltd, an important part of Sunderland’s industrial heritage.
Glassmaking was a skilled and physically demanding occupation. Workers handled molten glass at very high temperatures, and the industry provided employment for many local families. Dennis’s work placed him within the same wider industrial community that had shaped Thomas’s life as a blacksmith.
After their marriage, Hannah and Dennis moved into a three-roomed cottage at 16 Tennyson Street, Southwick. Their son, also named Dennis, was born around October 1952. For the young couple, this was the beginning of a family of their own, and their little boy was the centre of their lives.
But their happiness was to be tragically short-lived.
The winter tragedy of February 1954
In the early hours of 2 February 1954, Hannah was at home with her fourteen-month-old son while Dennis was working his night shift at the glassworks.
During the night, Hannah became concerned when the little boy appeared to be having a fit and his body stiffened. She took him to a neighbour at around two o’clock in the morning. Believing his symptoms might be connected with teething, Hannah and the neighbour hoped he would settle. After a short while, he appeared to relax and went to sleep, so Hannah took him back home.
The later inquest suggested that the baby was probably already suffering from coal-gas poisoning at this point. Neither Hannah nor her neighbour appears to have realised that the child might have been affected by a dangerous gas leak.
When Dennis Rugman returned from work at approximately 6.10 a.m., he noticed a strange smell as he entered the cottage. Going into the bedroom, he found it filled with gas. By torchlight, he saw Hannah and their little boy lying together in bed. Neither responded.
Dennis sought help from a neighbour, who opened a window, and an ambulance was called. Tragically, both Hannah and her son had died.
An inquest was held on 8 February 1954 by Sunderland coroner Cuthbert Morton. The evidence established that the gas had escaped from a fractured main beneath the street. The pipe had been laid in 1895 and was believed to have broken because of severe frost. Gas had entered the cottage through the floorboards, filling the bedroom with poisonous fumes.
The coroner recorded verdicts of accidental death for Hannah and her son. The tragedy had not been caused by a gas tap left open or by a deliberate act. It was the result of a hidden fault beneath the street, made worse by the extreme winter conditions.
Hannah was just twenty-five years old, and her little boy had lived for only fourteen months.
They were buried together at Mere Knolls Cemetery, Fulwell, on 4 February 1954, in the same coffin. Their burial record places them in Ward 28, Section BB, Grave 6067.
It is difficult to imagine the anguish this tragedy brought to the family. Thomas and Hannah had already endured the deaths of three young children. Now their youngest daughter was gone, along with their grandson, whose life had barely begun.
The loss must have been devastating for Hannah’s husband, Dennis, who had left home to work and returned to find his wife and child dead. For Thomas and Hannah, it meant losing a daughter they had watched grow from a little girl into a young wife and mother.
The records preserve the facts of the tragedy, but they cannot fully describe the grief experienced by those who loved them.
The final years of Thomas and Hannah
By February 1954, Thomas and Hannah were living at Alderson Street, Deptford, Sunderland. They continued their lives in the town that had been their home for so many years, surrounded by the streets and communities in which they had raised their family.
Thomas died at General Hospital on 6 December 1965, aged eighty-three. His life had spanned a period of enormous change, from the horse-and-cart era of his childhood to the modernising industries of the twentieth century. He had spent much of his working life as a blacksmith, contributing his skills to Sunderland’s engineering trade.
He was buried at Mere Knolls Cemetery on 10 December 1965.
Hannah survived him by just under two years. She died at General Hospital on 7 June 1967, aged eighty-two, and was buried at Mere Knolls Cemetery on 12 June. Both are recorded in Ward 24, Section LS, Grave 1080.
Their lives had been shaped by work, family and the community around them. They had raised eight children, but three had died in infancy or early childhood. Years later, they lost their youngest daughter Hannah and their grandson in a tragedy that shocked the local community.
They had experienced the joys of family life as well as some of its deepest sorrows.
A family remembered
The story of Thomas and Hannah Laidler is a story of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Thomas worked hard at a skilled trade in Sunderland’s engineering industry, while Hannah cared for their home and children. Their family grew up among the streets of Monkwearmouth, surrounded by the industries and communities that shaped generations of local families.
Their story also reminds us that family history is not always a straightforward tale of births, marriages and long lives. It contains loss, unanswered questions and the lives of children who were here for only a short time.
William Scott, Ellen and baby Hannah each had a place in the family, even though their lives ended so young. Hannah went on to build a family of her own, only for her life and that of her little boy to be cut short by a tragic accident.
Thomas and Hannah lived long enough to see much of Sunderland change around them, but they also carried the memories of the children they had lost. Their story reflects the resilience required of families in an age when life could be hard, work was demanding and medical and safety protections were not what they are today.
Today, the records allow their family story to be brought together once more: the streets where they lived, the trade Thomas practised, the home Hannah cared for, the children they raised and the sorrow that touched their lives.
Thomas Laidler and Hannah Harrison were more than names on a family tree. They were husband and wife, parents to eight children, and part of the living history of Sunderland. Their story deserves to be told in full, remembering not only the tragedies they endured but also the years of family life, work and love that came before them.