Catherine Eddowes was born in Wolverhampton in 1842. She was one of 11 children, known as Kate to her friends and ‘Chick’ to her family. George and Catherine Eddowes took their children to London when Kate was still a baby but, after the death of her mother Catherine in 1855, they dispersed. Some of the children went to Bermondsey Workhouse, while Kate returned to Wolverhampton. After a difficult time there, including robbing her employer and losing her job, she met Thomas Conway and had three children, although never married him. She had his initials tattooed on her arm, one of the ways she was identified after her murder. After twenty years together in what was probably an abusive relationship, they separated and she returned to London. There she met John Kelly in 1881, and lived with him at Conway’s Common Lodging House in 55 Flower and Dean Street until her death.

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