St. Mary’s Church in Nottingham lies at the heart of the historic Lace Market area, facing a handsome row of Victorian and Georgian townhouses from its elevated position on High Pavement.
Amongst its many interesting historical features, the one that attracted my attention is only a little over a hundred years old but tells of a most poignant story. It is a stained-glass window whose jewelled panes commemorate a life cut cruelly short, just one of the millions of victims of the 1918 Influenza pandemic, whose parents dedicated this window to the memory of their only daughter. By the most conservative estimate, at least 17000000 people died during this time, and the true global death count is probably far higher ; neither preventive measures nor effective treatments existed at the time.
The most affecting part of the window depicts a young woman kneeling before the Madonna and Child, with St. Katherine and St. Monica in the background, looking upon the scene with kindness.
Katherine, Mary and Monica are also the lady’s names, who is depicted in her wedding dress, a wreath in her hair and a veil of finest Nottingham lace falling over her face, as might be expected to be worn by the daughter of one of the premier lace merchants of the day. The Flersheim company had been founded in 1865 by a merchant from Germany, and up to the time of her marriage Katherine lived with her mother Caroline and father Gustav in a fine villa in a desirable area of Nottingham. Small as this family was, they also had the luxury of a cook, a housemaid and a nurse who would eventually be replaced by a private governess from her father’s native Germany.
Katherine’s wedding day was on the 23rd of October 1918, at St. Mary’s, no doubt a day of rejoicing and happiness, but sadly the influenza epidemic sweeping the country was to cut short all hope of a long and loving married life for the newly wed couple.
After just seven short days as a married woman, at the age of 19, Katherine died in Bournemouth, where they had presumably gone on honeymoon.
In their grief, her parents commissioned this beautiful window as a tribute, and it was installed in 1920, by which time her father had also died, leaving an estate worth an astonishing £91,750.