Heroic Mother of 24 Children

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 158, 24 September 1927, Page 12

Heroic Mother of 24 Children

Keeps Large Family on 45/- a Week By the birth of her 24th baby, Mrs. Emily Jane Lucas, the wife of a tractor driver, c Baltic Road, Tonbridge, England, ha* outrivalled her fellow-towns-woman, JVirs. Goldsmith, the wife of a railwayman, of Hadlow Road, who is the proud mother of 23 children. Two mothers with 47 children l Is there any other town in England which can boast of such a record? Tonbridge is proud justifiably proud. “Can you tell me where Mrs. Lucas [ lives?” I asked a small boy. the first person I saw in the High Street (writes a “Daily Chronicle” representative). “I’m Percy,” replied the youngster. “Percy who?” “Lucas, of course,” and he took ine to see how his army of brothers and sisters fare in their little six-roomed cottage. Father earns 45s a week, so the arrival of No. 24—a girl— the struggle to make ends meet harder than ever. Of the 24, sixteen are boys, and they include three sets of twins. Twelve of them are still under 13 years of age. Three of the elder boys and Mrs. Lucas’s first husband were killed during the war. How do they manage? Well, they only manage at all because Mrs. Lucas is a remarkable woman—a woman in a million. She works from daylight to dusk for her family, making and mending their clothes, cooking, cleaning, washing, and (in her spare time) manufacturing wool rugs to keep the wolf from the door. Still, she never complains. “I would not be without them for worlds; they are my greatest happiness,” she declares. Here is her average weekly budget:

dren look forward to Sunday, when there is a small .piece of plain, homemade cake for them. Father is the family cobbler and barber. Sometimes, it is true, the boys have to go barefooted, but with it all they are as happy a crowd of youngsters as one would wish to see.

s d. . d. Rent .. . 7 0 71b. rice .. .. 1 11 Meat an d Cheese .. /. 1 2 bones .. . . 2 0 Soap 9 Soup powders 1 0 Tea 7 Bread .. . . 10 0 Tinned milk 2 0 61b. sugar . 1 8 There are no luxuries, and the chil-