Hyatt Family Tree

Walter was on the Training Ship "Exmouth" on the River Thames off Grays, Essex at age 13yrs. This was basically a children's workhouse. By age 22yrs, he was working as a Woolen Merchants Warehouse Porter, boarding at 23 Gresham Street St, Islington, London. By 1911 he was a cloth pattern cutter living with his wife Maud at 41 Marmion Road, Battersea.

HMS Exmouth was a 90-gun screw propelled second rate ship of the line launched in 1854. She was lent to the Metropolitan Asylums as a training ship in 1877 and She was sold to George Cohen on 4 April 1905 and then broken up at Penarth.

HMS Exmouth 1879 Late Screw 2nd Rate, Lent to the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District as a Training Ship for pauper boys of the Metropolis, Thames.

HMS Exmouth 1890 Lent to the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District as a Training Ship for pauper boys of the Metropolis, Thames.

Boys were able to join the ship from the age of twelve. Their first task was to learn how to mend and patch their own clothes. They also had to learn how to wash their clothes, and keep their lockers and contents in good order. Each boy had his own hammock which was stowed during the day, leaving the decks clear of bedding. As well as learning the skills of sailing, rowing, sail and rope-making, gunnery, and signalling, they continued ordinary school work, and other physical activities such as swimming and gymnastics. The ship had its own band and bugle-band.

In 1892, admission to the ship was extended for up to 50 boys from parishes and unions outside the metropolitan Poor Law Area. In 1896, 137 boys entered the Royal Navy from the Exmouth (compared with a total of 135 from all other training ships in the country combined).

The Metropolitan Asylums Board (or MAB) was established under Poor Law legislation, to deal with London's sick poor. It was established in 1867 and was wound up in 1930, its functions being transferred to the London County Council. Despite its name, the MAB was not involved in providing care for the mentally ill. During its lifetime, it set up around 40 institutions, beginning with three hospitals for Smallpox and fever cases, and two large asylums for what were then termed 'imbeciles' - people with severe learning difficulties...