An Angel immortalised in city she watched over

Nov 21 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S angel yesterday reappeared in the city where her work among the poor saved thousands of lives

A sculpture of Catherine (Kitty) Wilkinson was carried into the Editions Art Gallery on Cook Street. There to greet her with a broad smile was her biographer, Michael Kelly.

“Wonderful,” he said in appreciation of the work by Terry McGunigle, who runs the Bootle-based Merseyside Forum for artists.

Her arrival followed publication of a new edition of Michael’s book, The Life and Times of Kitty Wilkinson, which has been one of the top sellers on local lists for several years.

Kitty Seaward was born in Londonderry in 1786 and came to Liverpool three years later.

After some years of working in a Lancashire cotton mill, she returned to Liverpool. In 1812, she married a French seaman, Emanuel Demonte, and was expecting their second child when he drowned at sea three years later.

Soon after that she married Tom Wilkinson, a sweetheart from their days in the mill at Caton, near Lancaster, who fell in love with Kitty after hearing her sing the songs of Liverpool

The couple rose to prominence during the cholera epidemics, which swept through the port between 1832 and ’40.

Making the link between poor sanitation and the spread of disease, Kitty and Tom had a boiler fitted in the scullery of their home in Denison Street.

By then Kitty was visiting the homes of the poor, winning admiration for her kindness and concern. People called her “the Saint of the Slums”.

A lady of means bequeathed her a mangle, which made life a little easier. Soon mothers from the neighbourhood were visiting to wash their clothes and linen. To accommodate more people, Kitty turned the cellar into a wash-house. With public support, Kitty then opened Britain’s first public washhouse in Upper Frederick Street.

Her example had taught the authorities, that cleanliness was a vital weapon against disease.

She died in 1860, aged 73, revered as a saintly figure in Liverpool. The rich and poor attended her burial at St James Cemetery, Liverpool.

The most familiar portrait of Kitty shows her dour-faced and wearing a blouse with baggy sleeves reaching down to hands chapped and bruised by toil.

A stained-glass image of her at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral is based on that portrait.

By contrast, Terry’s sculpture shows her the way she is remembered in the folk memory – an earthly angel whose simple ideas about hygiene spared thousands of Liverpudlians.

Olwen McLaughlin, a champion of local artists, is displaying the sculpture in Editions, but it will sometimes accompany Michael when he gives any of his talks about Kitty.

“She went to great lengths to keep the children clean,” says Terry.

* The Life and Times of Kitty Wilkinson is published by Countyvise at £7.95.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk