Waiting Room at Sheffield Infirmary 1897. Source: Picture Sheffield.
When Sheffield General Cemetery opened in 1836 medical treatments were expensive and limited. The poor lived in crowded and insanitary conditions, and infections accounted for many deaths. Children frequently succumbed to childhood diseases like measles and whooping cough. Childbirth could be fatal.
A great deal of progress was made in the years between Queen Victoria’s accession in 1837 and her death in 1901. Sewage systems were built, and water supplies and housing improved following a number of public health acts. In the 1860s Joseph Lister discovered that using carbolic acid for dressings, surgical instruments and washing hands substantially reduced infections. Florence Nightingale’s investigation into the causes of military deaths in the Crimean War revealed that the greatest number of deaths were due to infection not war wounds. All these developments contributed to preventing disease and improving people’s lives.
In the nineteenth century there were no welfare benefits provided by the state for sickness, unemployment or to support families when the wage earner died. People who could afford to would join Friendly Societies who paid sickness and death benefits in return for a regular subscription. Those who could not afford these subscriptions relied on poor law payments and were often forced into the workhouse, particularly toward the end of their lives.
