Born: 20 Feb 1890 at Wilford Lodge, near Newport, Co Mayo, Ireland and baptised 4 April 1890.
Parents: Arthur Talbott Oram 1853-1919 and Catherine Love Anderson 1854-1920
Siblings: Jane Oram 1882-1882, Anderson Oram 1882-1882, John Oram 1884-1953, Arthur Oram 1885-1965, Margaret “Gretta ” Oram 1888-1967 , James Oram 1890-1964 (her twin) and Isabella “Isa” Oram 1891-1959
Marriage and offspring: None
Died: 1 Oct 1942 at Pune , then known as Poona, in Maharashtra, India, about 70 miles SE of Mumbai.
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Emily’s siblings Arthur, James and Gretta were the sources for Emily’s entry in Daphne Oram’s “Oram Family Saga” compiled in the 1960s
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Arthur and Catherine Oram had one pair of twins – Emily & James. In his diary for February 20th 1890, Arthur records “To Mullaun drove Mrs. Dick to Burrishoole, dined there, was about to leave when John Hoban (his farmworker) arrived. He had been to fetch doctor. Mrs. Dick came back with me to Wilford. We arrive same time as Doctor. A boy born 5.15 p.m. and a girl before 6. Mother and twins do well thank God. Doctor leaves 10 p.m. William Rose came.”
Emily first went to school with James at Newport. In her middle teens she left and then attended boarding school at Dundalk. She gained a place at Queens University Belfast and got her B.A. in 1913.
Her first teaching post was at Mansfield House, Bristol which she left 3 years later to have her appendix out. When she was better she joined the staff of Basingstoke Grammar School.
In 1919 her younger sister, Isa, wished to marry William Robertson. So Emily returned to Wilford to take over nursing her mother who was by now crippled with arthritis.
In 1921 after both her parents had died and Wilford Lodge was sold, Emily returned to India with her elder brother, Arthur, to act as his companion and hostess which meant running the considerable team of Indian servants who were an essential part of official and social life in India in those days.
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During the 1938-1945 War, Emily was a senior officer in St. John’s Ambulance Service.
Emily was another typical Oram with a strong will and character – she died in Poona Hospital as a result of a car accident head injury in 1942.
Archive
2013 note: Some of Emily’s papers are included in her brother Arthur’s archive held by the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge University see here.
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