History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Elizabeth (Lillie) Miers was born in 1872, the daughter of Joseph Miers and Cecilia Levy. They had married in January 1868 and lived at 47 Oxford Road Kilburn, where they had six children. But the marriage was not successful and they divorced in 1883. The divorce papers said that since December 1882, Cecilia had committed adultery with Alfred Nathan and cohabited with him since January the following year. Nathan was a teacher of modern languages and by 1891 he and Cecilia were living in Staines with two children. Ten years later Joseph Miers was living with three of his daughters at 18 Summerfield Avenue in Queens Park. He was a wholesale clothier with an office in the City, and Lillie worked for her father as a commercial traveller. When she became 21, she had invested £300 in his company, but later the business failed and Joseph went bankrupt. On 15 September 1901 he committed suicide by taking poison in his office at 56 City Road and died in St Bartholomew Hospital. Lillie was devas...