Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost YearsMaybrick, Florence Elizabeth
History
Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth, 1862-1941; Trials (Murder) -- England; Women prisoners -- England
At six o’clock the bell rings to rise. Half an hour later a second bell
signifies to the officers that it is time to come on duty. Each warder
in charge of certain wards--there are three wards to each hall--then
goes to the chief matron’s office, where she receives a key wherewith
to unlock the prisoners’ cells. All keys are given up by the female
warder before going off duty, and locked for the night in an iron safe
under the charge of a male warder. When again in possession of her key
she repairs to her ward, and at the order, “Unlock,” she lets out the
prisoners to empty their slops. This done, they are once more locked
in, with the exception of three women who go down to the kitchen to
fetch the cans of tea and loaves of bread which make up the prisoners’
breakfast. At Woking the breakfast was of cocoa and coarse meal bread,
while later, at Aylesbury, it consisted of tea and white bread. I am
constrained to remark here that more consideration should be shown by
the medical officer toward women who complain of being physically unfit
to do heavy lifting and carrying. The can is carried by two women up
two or three flights of stairs, according to the location of their
ward, and the bread by one woman only. Each can contains fourteen
quarts of tea, and the bread-basket holds thirty pounds or more of
bread. To a woman with strong muscles it may cause no distress, but in
the case of myself and others equally frail, the physical strain was
far beyond our strength, and left us utterly exhausted after the task.
The breakfast was served at seven o’clock, when the officers returned
to the mess-room to take theirs. At 7:30 a bell rang again, and the
officers returned to their respective wards. At ten minutes to eight
the order was given, “Unlock.” Once more the doors were opened. Then
followed the order, “Chapel,” and each woman stood at her door with
Bible, prayer-book, and hymn-book in hand. At the words “Pass on,” they
file one behind the other into the chapel, where a warder from each
ward sits with her back to the altar that she may be able the better
to watch those under her charge and see that they do not speak. After
a service of twenty minutes the prisoners file back to their cells,
place their books on the lower shelf, and with a drab cape and a white
straw hat stand in readiness for the next order, “To your doors.” This
given, they descend into the hall and pass out to their respective
places of work.
TALK WITH THE CHAPLAIN
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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