130 years ago today, a woman who battled with alcoholism, spent time in one of the first all female rehab centres in the UK trying to overcome it before it overcame her, was murdered in a yard off Hanbury Street. Her name was Annie Chapman.
Annie's father had been a soldier in the 2nd Life Guard, she had grown up between Knightsbridge and Windsor. Her father later became a gentleman's valet for a Crimean War hero, and also suffered from alcohol addiction. He cut his own throat while in Wrexham with his employer.
Annie went out to service and eventually married a 'gentleman's coachman' John Chapman and lived near Onslow Square, Berkeley Square and off Jermyn Street, before her husband's career took them to the Windsor estate of Sir Francis Tress Barry.
The Barry family were very well connected - in 1881 the Prince of Wales used his house to entertain his friends during Ascot week. However, John Chapman's 'inebriate wife' was becoming an issue. The family paid for her to spend a year in rehabilitation in West London.
She returned, but couldn't maintain a sober life and so, due to pressure from John's employer, they parted. Annie was given 10 shillings a week maintenance, which would have sustained her, had she lived with her mother or teetotal sisters in London and not been an addict.
Unfortunately, she parted company with her family on bad terms and eventually found herself in Whitechapel - a place where she had never lived and didn't know. Here she threw her lot in with a man called Jack Sievey, who made wire-sieves and later a man called Ted Stanley.
Until her husband's death she was receiving those 10 shillings per week, but when it stopped arriving, she walked to Windsor to learn why. Annie attempted to make ends meet by selling her crochet work. She also appears to have been suffering from tuberculosis.
Ted Stanley came to see her every weekend and paid for their accommodation at Crossingham's Lodging House - but where she spent the other nights of the week is a question which has never been answered.
Annie needn't have been out on the streets - this is part of the tragedy. It is still a tragedy for so many today who face addiction issues which, 130 years later are so similar to those which haunted Annie Chapman. @beyondstreets is doing a great job of raising awareness.
Rather than commemorating the murder of this woman by Jack the Ripper 130 years ago today, making a small (or large) donation to help people who find themselves in similar positions would be a positive way of remembering Annie Chapman and those like her in 2018.
