Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes was born in Graisley Green, Wolverhampton (West Midlands) on 14 April 1842. Her parents, tinplate worker George Eddowes and his wife Catherine (née Evans), had been married since 1832, and had 11 other children, 5 older that Catherine (Alfred, Harriet, Emma, Eliza and Elizabeth), and 6 younger than her (Thomas, George, John, Sarah, Mary and William). In 1855, when Catherine was around 13, her mother Catherine died. The same year, Catherine's education at St John's Charity School, Patters Field, Tooley Street, ended. Most of her siblings entered Bermondsey Workhouse and Industrial School. In the early 1860s Catherine eventually returned to finish her education at Dowgate Charity School and to care for her aunt in Biston Street, Wolverhampton and to work as a tinplate stamper. Around 1861, when she was 19, Catherine left home to be with ex-soldier Thomas Conway. She was known as Kate Conway by that time, using her common-law husband's surname even if they weren't legal