Conisborough Soldiers Wives and their Rates – Hard Cases

May 1916

Mexborough and Swinton Times May 5 1916

Hard Cases
Conisborough Soldiers Wives and their Rates

Two exceedingly hard cases were heard at the Doncaster Police Court on Tuesday, when the Conisborough overseers summoned two women, soldiers wife, for non-payment of rates.

The first said she had two children, one 11 and the other seven years of age. Her husband had worked at the Cadeby pit for 16 years. She got 21 shillings a week.

When ordered 2s per week the woman, who was very respectively dressed, quietly remarked “it is hard lines when one’s husband is fighting for the country; if he came home he would have £3 a week.”

In the other case the woman said she had not been dealt pay the rates on account of the war. Her husband went away on the first day of the war. She had three children, 11, five and one year and eight months.

She was ordered to pay 2s a week.