Barbara Mortensen (1875-1956)
The luckiest woman in Seaham
On the evening of 11 July 1916, Barbara Mortensen was in her kitchen. Her husband, a joiner at the colliery, and their children were upstairs. Much to her surprise, a shell smashed through the wall of the kitchen, past Barbara, straight through the room and landed on the front doorstep. Fortunately, no-one was hurt.
As their surname might suggest, Barbara’s husband was Danish. The earliest record that we have of him in England is his marriage to Barbara in 1898.
Civil Parish: Seaham
Birth date: 1875
Death date: 1956
Armed force/civilian: Civilian
Residence: 14 Doctor Street, New Seaham (1911 census)
Family: Husband: Carl August Albert Mortensen
Children: Carl August Albert Mortensen, Barbara Mortensen, Ethel Mortensen, Waldemar Mortensen, Olaf Mortensen
(1911 census)
Gender: Female
Contributed by Durham County Record Office