IN the Liskeard Union Workhouse’s half year report dated Lady Day 1887, it is noted that Rev. W.H. Finnimore had been committed to the Bodmin Lunatic Asylum, and that the cost of his upkeep, 10s 6d a week, was being paid by Mr. Thomas E. Moon, his brother-in-law, a Tailor and Draper of no.1 Fore Street, Liskeard.

On August 30, 1870, Rev. Finnimore had married Elizabeth Moon, Thomas’ sister, in the United Methodist Free Church on Greenbank Road, Liskeard. Due to the popularity of Elizabeth and her family, the bells of St Martin’s Church ‘sent out a merry peel’, a rare occurrence for an event unconnected with the Anglican Church. Rev. Finnimore died in the Asylum on March 3, 1889, leaving Elizabeth a widow with a son, Thomas Moon aged 14, and a daughter, Kathleen Mary Elizabeth aged 17.

Under ‘Deaths’ in 1899, The Cornishman newspaper reported that ‘On Dec. 23 at 88 Coronation Road, Bristol, Kathleen Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Elizabeth Finnimore and of the late Rev. W.H. Finnimore, aged 27’. The notice in The Cornishman did not make public that Kathleen had in fact died in Bristol Lunatic Asylum, a similar fate as her father ten years earlier.

Perhaps affected by this double tragedy during her life, before Elizabeth Finnimore died at the age of 80, she requested ‘no flowers or cards’ at her funeral. And the simple inscription on a headstone in Lanchard Cemetery in Station Road is ‘In affectionate remembrance of William H. Finnimore U.M.F.C. Minister. Also of Elizabeth, widow of the above, born July 27, 1836, Died March 3, 1917.’

By Brian Oldham, museum volunteer and Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow