RETURN TO LYNES
Emma is worthy of special mention. She never married, and spent her early life in service. She was at Batley (1881, a general servant to a master dyer) and at Potternewton (1901, a monthly nurse to a steam engine maker); but has not been located in the 1891 census. Her younger sister Jane Eliza died early in 1920 very soon after the death of her husband, and Emma took over the upbringing of their youngest children, Nellie, Bessie and Alice. Emma also worked as a tripe dresser in one of the Emms tripe shops. She lived at Woodhouse Street between 1920 and 1937, when she went to Granby Grove, Hyde Park, Leeds, staying for two years with Nellie who was by then married to Harold Howell. About this time she obtained a copy of her birth certificate and was surprised to learn she was really Emily and not Emma. She then went to live at Institution Street, Woodhouse, where she lived for almost 20 years before finally going into the Moorhaven Home for the Blind, Cranmer Bank, Leeds, on 29 May 1958.
Emma’s finest hour came on 17th October 1958 when Queen Elizabeth II visited Leeds. An article in the Yorkshire Post for Saturday 18th October gave the following details.
The highlight of the Queen’s meet-the-people tour of Leeds yesterday was her visit to Brackenhurst Hostel, in Scott Hall Road, where the welcome of the old folk, though naturally more subdued was no less enthusiastic than that of the great crowds who had hailed the Queen in the city.
“What a lovely place,” exclaimed the Queen as she and the Duke of Edinburgh toured the hostel under the guidance of the Lord Mayor (Alderman Mrs. Mary Pearce) and the chairman of the Welfare Services Committee, Councillor Albert King.
The Queen and the Duke saw a typical single room, and another where four old ladies were engaged in handicrafts. Then in the main lounge, they met some of the old folk -- including representatives of other hostels -- and there were one or two moving little scenes.
One old lady shook the Queen’s hand, but could not see her. She was 94-year-old Miss Emma Lynes, a blind ex-nurse who now lives at Moor Haven, the Leeds Corporation Home for Aged Blind.
Almost a year later, Emma died (age 95) at Moorhaven (13th September 1959).