Biographical notes

The pre-marital (1862) life of Hannah Bull has been difficult to trace with certainty. The Census returns give varying places of birth as listed; 1871, 29, London Middlesex; 1881, 40, Dudley Worcestershire; 1891, 50, Dudley, Worcestershire; 1901, 59, Hereford. These variations can possibly be explained by the fact that the Bull family moved from Dudley to Middlesex when Hannah was about 4 and that her father, George Bull, was born near the Worcestershire- Herefordshire border, and her mother, Esther, in Dudley. Her birth in Dudley seems to be confirmed by a corresponding entry in the BMD index for 1841.

The earliest Census record in which she is listed is that of 1841 where her name is given as Hannah Bale, 2 months old (born in April 1841, this agrees with the BMD index for her birth), living with parents George and Esther in Dudley.

In the 1851 Census, she appears as Hannah Ball, aged 10, born in Dudley and living with the rest of the family in Middlesex.

She married George William Frederick Daw on July 1862, in Bristol, and thereafter can be traced in all subsequent Census returns to 1911.

Husband George died in 1909.

Described as a Widow (69) in the 1911 Census living with son Albany (23, unmarried) and single daughters Amy (42) and Alice (46) at 80 Connaught Road, Cardiff. Hannah's birthplace is erroneously given as Paddington, London (where she went to live with her parents soon after her birth).

A rigorous search of the BMD death indexes between 1911 and 1938 has only come up with one possible matching entry for the death of Hannah. This entry is for the second quarter of 1912 in Eastbourne with a given age of 71 which matches exactly with the BMD index for her birth. This, at first, seems unlikely as in the previous year she is living in Cardiff. However, in the 1911 Census, her daughter Lillian Daw (b1876 ) is living with Jane Bull (1829-1920; Lilians Great Aunt and Hannah's aunt) and it seems possible that Hannah moved to Eastbourne to be with them before her death a few months later in 1912. It may also be significant that an Alice E. Daw died in Eastbourne in 1934 at the age of 69. This may have been Hannah's daughter Alice Emma Daw (born 1864) as the recorded age at death matches almost exactly with that of her birth.