| Description | Volume [formerly 3 separate volumes but now one single volume; first few pages missing] containing the diary (11 April 1887 - 11 August 1900) and autobiography [begun c.1882] of Thomas Wayland Fletcher.
The autobiography includes many extracts from an earlier diary [kept from c.1850?]. Fletcher married Elizabeth Margaret Migotti at Poplar Church on 5 January 1857 and lived at a number of different addresses, mostly in Poplar and Bow, including 4 Brunswick Road, Poplar Terrace, 2 Arthur Street (Limehouse) and 17-19 Tredegar Terrace. On 2 January 1900 he was stricken with paralysis and the writing on the final pages shows the effect this had on him. He died in November 1901.
Two letters are bound in the same volume:
(a) From E W Bracebridge to F W Fletcher of 7 Harley Place, Bow Road, giving Fletcher a character reference. Bracebridge states that Fletcher had been his employee for about 10 years, as General Clerk draughtsman and as Clerk of the Works in superintending the building of the Church Mission House in Salisbury Square, and the new Sailors Home in Dock Street, 2 April 1870.
(b) From George Lethbridge of 7 Drapers Gardens, Throgmorton Avenue, to Mrs Fletcher, mentioning a cheque for £20 and expressing hopes that Mr Fletcher will be feeling better,
14 December 1900 |
| AdminHistory | Thomas Wayland Fletcher was born on 20th May 1833 and spent much of his life in Poplar and Bow, working on the designs of a considerable number of local houses, taverns and other buildings. |
| CustodialHistory | Accessioned 11 February 1988 [but part of the Local History collection for many years previously, from at least the 1940s; exact provenance not known]. |