Louisa Charlotte Duncombe was born in 1835 to James (a servant) and Frances. She was baptised on 30th January 1835 at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, London and the record shows they lived in Denmark Street, Camden. Three years later her sister Matilda was born. Their mother Frances died the following year.

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The 1841 census shows Louisa (5) and Matilda (3) had moved to the New Forest to live with John and Frances Ward and their two adult sons who lived in Beaulieu Street. 70 year old John was a harness maker who had married Frances Duncan (a widow) in 1797. The name was Duncan is possibly a corruption of Duncombe, so it may be Frances Ward and her first husband were Louisa and Matilda's grandparents which could  explain why she took the little London born girls in.

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By 1851 Louisa, aged 16, was a general servant to the Legrand family at Stacey Place in Slough. Sarah Legrand, the manciplar, ran the school and her two daughters acted as the governesses.

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Louisa was baptised at East Boldre Baptist chapel in 1858. She married George Read, a 23 year old agricultural labourer, in 1859 and the 1861 census shows the couple lived at Hilltop, Beaulieu. The had a daughter Frances Louisa in 1863 and a son, Ernest Edward, in 1866.

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Louisa died just two years later and was buried at the chapel by the Rev John Bartlett Burt on 3rd May 1868