One particularly alarming aspect of Victorian life which shows up in the old school diaries was the number of deaths in the community - many of them children.
They are usually mentioned only very briefly, because they were so common - usually due to disease. These examples are all from Garth School diaries...

These three Log Book entries read -
31st October 1884 - "Reduced attendance. One boy (infant) in school last week, died on Monday"...
15th May 1891 - "Wretched attendance. Builth May Fair on Monday is partly the cause, and sickness and deaths in some of the families will account for the rest. Holiday on Monday".
8th January 1897 - "Attendance not good. Deaths in two families kept five children away".
The little boy who died in 1884 is not even named in the Log Book, and family deaths are included along with the Fair as regular reasons for absence in 1891 !

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