When this wonderful picture popped up on my facebook page I was fascinated! Of course, I have heard of 'knocker-upper's' but not using a pea shooter! I decided to do a bit of investigating to see if it was true. Luckily the comments on the facebook page gave a little more detail: 'Mary Smith (nee Mendosa) of Brenton Street, Limehouse, London'.
Thank goodness she had the unmarried name Mendosa, much easier to research than Smith!
Mary Ann Mendosa was born 6 September 1865 in Whitechapel. Her parents were Israel and Mary Ann Alice. Israel was a 'waterman', probably on the Thames. (There's another potential research subject for another day!)
By the time of the 1881 census, Mary was 15yrs old, still living with her family in Whitechapel and already employed as a domestic servant. Just a few years later aged 18yrs she married Thomas Edward Smith at St Mary's Church, Whitechapel. Thomas was working as a 'Carman' - a driver of horse drawn carts and wagons.
Mary and Thomas settled into a home on Lucas Street, Whitechapel and began family life. They were to have sixteen children though only two survived to adulthood. This is incredibly sad. Child mortality was high in the 1890's and about one in five infants did not survive, but Thomas and Mary's family suffered far greater than that, the reason for this is simply not known.
By 1911 the family had moved to 71, Brenton Street and Thomas was a riverside porter. Mary was employed as a Tin Box Maker. There were a number of factories in South East London at that time producing tin boxes. This was dangerous, hard work mostly carried out by women and teenagers. The metal was cut into sheets using industrial presses and then welded into the shape of a box. They were then polished or decorated with enamel.
It is not known how long Mary worked as a box maker but Tom, her son was appointed 'knocker up' for the Limehouse area of London at some time after 1911. These were the days before an insistent mobile phone alarm, or even an alarm clock, but people still had to get to work on time. Tom worked at the role until 1914 and then at the outbreak of World War One, Tom enlisted and Mary took on the role of 'knocker up' to keep his job open until his return.
Sadly Tom did not return. Just a week before armistice Tom was killed in action. Mary must have decided to just continue with the job. The job of 'knocker up' did traditionally use long poles to tap on the bedroom windows of clients but apparently Mary was not the only one to use dried peas expelled from a pea shooter!
By 1921, Thomas and Mary were still living on Breton Street, again, Mary's occupation is not listed. However she definitely continued in the role as in 1936 there was a newspaper article about her when she had just retired. She told the reporter that she had been happy with the job, and got used to the very early mornings!
Thomas and Mary moved to Leopold Street, Stepney at some point after that, and were still living there in 1939. Mary died aged 81yrs in 1946.
I'm sure Mary would have been pleased and amazed to know that her name was immortalised as she is the subject of a children's book published in 2003 and still available today!
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