This is the another picture featuring William HOOKINS much later than on the last blog posting. His wife Sarah is seated beside him and alongside him is Lizzie SMITH (Sarah's maiden name) a niece of William and Sarah. The boy seated playing with his toy boat is said to be Alfred John the youngest of the children of William and Sarah. This suggests that the picture was taken in the late 1870s so William would have been aged just over 50, Sarah being 5 years younger.
This certificate is from the Royal Hospital at Chelsea which indicates that William was no. 9500 in the Chelsea pensioner ranks
as a result of which he was granted a pension of 4d per day. The letter I have a copy of in William's own hand was addressed to the Governor of Portland Prison where William had worked as a guard. In this letter William was asking the Governor to write to the Chelsea Hospital with a character reference and points out that he has a wife and 2 children - the other 2 children had died by this time - and that Sarah has been "for many years afflicted" presumably with some illness. She died in 1891 of apoplexy.
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