A short history of Suicide in Kensal Green Cemetery

Cases of suicide in cemeteries are not unknown today, but they are very rare. Though they were still unusual events cemetery suicides occurred more frequently in the 19th and early part of the 20th century. The most common reason for choosing a cemetery as a suicide site seems, unsurprisingly, to be the presence of a grave of a loved one, a partner or a parent usually. In their 2017 paper Unusual suicide settings: a forensic-pathological analysis four cases of suicide in cemetery by Boracchi, Clerici,  Gentile et al, the Italian psychiatrists suggest that “victims that commit suicide in such contexts usually keep strong emotional relationship with the deceased person, and probably they cannot start new relationships or fill the void of their personal loss. The suicide in the cemetery (that is universally seen as the place of the reunification between living people and dead people) can also express a public declaration of prolonged grief and sense of abandonment, and so the tragic decision can also permit a final reunion with the lost beloved person.” The Italians also suggest that some suicides may see the cemetery “as the most suitable place to put the end to the life” perhaps because it relieves “relatives the torment of a suicide in the domestic ambient.”  Cemeteries they add, “could be interpreted as a place (external to the home) that is by definition designated to the acceptance of the pain.”

Certainly, this seems to accord with the suicide cases I have looked at previously at Brompton Cemetery. Of the six cases reported by the newspapers at Kensal Green Cemetery between 1851 and 1926 three unusually have no follow up reports from the inquests so that we do not know either the identity of the victim or the reasons for them taking their own life. Three used poison to kill themselves, two cut their own throats with a razor and one shot himself in the head.

On the 22nd January 1851 an inquest was held at the Plough Inn on Harrow Road (opposite the main gate of the cemetery) on the death 6 days earlier of Richard Randell, a gold beater and painter aged 50, of Norton Street in Marylebone. On the 16th of January Randell in a somewhat agitated state, had made his way into the cemetery, and in front of at least two witnesses had cut his throat with a straight razor. The witnesses, including a Mrs Eliza Glue, reluctant to get involved with a police investigation, did not wait around and did not report what they had seen.  Consequently, Randell's body, face down in a pool of coagulated blood, was not found until next day when one of the cemetery labourers called the police.

Inquests were routinely held in public houses in the 19th century.  The body of the deceased was almost always present at the inquest, and was on general view to the public, in this case in an outhouse of the Plough. The article below from the Weekly Times & Echo of Sunday 2nd February 1851 is an almost verbatim reproduction of an article which did the rounds in many of the local newspapers, but the editor has added his own little touch to the original report; the body he says "presented an appalling spectacle, the head being almost severed from the body..." This has to be an exaggeration; the original report mentions two frightful gashes at the throat. It is simply not possible for a suicide to 'almost severe' their head from their body with a cut throat razor. 

Richard Rendell was born in the parish of St Anne's in Soho in 1851 and married Sarah Sims at St Marylebone Parish church in 1826. The couple had no children. He was also buried at St Marylebone, two days after the inquest, on the 24th January. After hearing that "the deceased had been in a desponding state for some time in consequence of disappointments in business", the jury returned a verdict of 'Insanity': 

SUICIDE IN KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY. On Wednesday Mr. H. M. Wakley held an inquest at the Plough, Kensal Green, on Mr. Richard Randell, gold beater and house decorator, late of Norton-street, Portland place, Marylebone, aged 50. The body, which lay in an outhouse of the Plough, presented an appalling spectacle, the head being almost severed from the body. 

Police constable Sydney Howard, 161 D, deposed that at half-past three last Friday afternoon a labourer directed his attention to deceased, in Kensal Green Cemetery, whom he found lying on his face in a coagulated pool of blood, on the north side of the cemetery, near the wall, and close to the shrubbery which divided the grounds. A razor was at his side, with which he had inflicted the frightful gashes in his throat. The body was quite cold and stiff, as if he had been dead some time. Mr. Brown, surgeon, was instantly sent for, who pronounced life extinct a long time. At the other side of the shrubbery he found deceased’s great coat, shirt collar, neckerchief, and hat. In the last-named article lay the neckerchief. About seven yards from where the body lay there was another pool of blood. There was a gap in the shrubbery as if some person had found his way through it. In deceased’s pocket were his name and address. He believed the deceased had lain there from the previous day, as the grass under him was quite yellow. Witness, although on duty there on Thursday and Friday, heard no cries of distress.

 Mrs. Eliza Glue, residing at Kensal New Town, deposed that she arrived from Yorkshire on Thursday on a visit to some friends, and at twelve o'clock on Friday she was taking a walk in the cemetery, when deceased rushed towards her, and standing in front of her stared wildly at her a few seconds. He then rushed behind the monument, where he was found, and cut his throat—the blood gushing out. She screamed and ran away, falling over a tombstone in her fright, when she came in contact with a labouring man, who asked her if she were frightened. She replied, “Yes.” When he said, “If you don’t want to be more frightened by meeting the police, you had better make your way out of the cemetery.” She then turned round and saw deceased fall. After which she hurried as fast as she could out of the cemetery.

John M‘Donnell, a labourer, stated that he saw deceased on Thursday, walking towards the shrubbery where the body was found, with his note book in his hand as if sketching the monument.

Mary Edwards, deceased’s servant, identified the razor as her master's, and deposed that he frequently threatened suicide; and that on the day before his death he bid her good bye, saying she would not see him again alive. After which he left home.

Other witnesses were examined, who stated that the deceased had been in a desponding state for some time in consequence of disappointments in business. After which the coroner summed up, and the jury unhesitatingly returned a verdict of “Insanity.”

The first of the unknown cases occurred in February or March 1859. Newspaper reports, almost of all of them with identical wording reported that “a man has committed suicide by taking poison in Kensal green Cemetery, London. The wretched man had formed an attachment to a widow, which was not returned, and when his dead body was found it was lying at the head-stone of the widow's late husband.” (Preston Herald - Saturday 05 March 1859).  In 1872 an ‘unknown gentleman’, the corpse in this case was clearly better dressed and of a higher social class than the unknown ‘man’ of 1859, was found in the cemetery. This report comes from the Fife Herald of 14th November 1872: 

Kensal Green Cemetery. — At noon on Monday the body an unknown gentleman was discovered by some undertakers who were engaged on funeral in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. The body lying was amongst some tombstones, and a single barrelled pistol was found near the head of the deceased.

In 1905, unusually, it was a woman who tried to kill herself. This is from the Illustrated Police Budget of Saturday 18th March:

Throat Cut in Cemetery. One night last week at Kensal Green Cemetery an unknown woman attempted to commit suicide by cutting her throat. She was found by a cemetery-keeper lying in a pool of blood across a grave with a razor in her hand and a terrible gash in her throat. She was removed on the police ambulance by Police-constable 274 X to St. Mary’s Hospital, where she now lies in a critical condition. The woman seems rather over middle age and she was respectably dressed. Her identity is at present quite a mystery. She is not expected to recover.

On Friday 1st December 1916 the Willesden Chronicle reported the sad case of 63-year-old Jeanette Thompson of Waverley Terrace, Westminster (now demolished, it was close to Royal Oak station). The attempts by Paddington Infirmary to save Jeanette’s life verge on cruelty;

WOMAN’S DETERMINED SUICIDE, TAKES POISON IN THE CEMETERY. At the Paddington Coroner's Court on Tuesday, Mr. Luxmoore Drew enquired into the death of Jeanette Thompson, 63, the wife of a horsekeeper, of 7, Waverley-terrace, Harrow road .—Mrs. Thompson, a daughter, of 16, Senior-street, said her mother was a cook in Upper Westbourne-terrace, and was healthy and temperate. She had had fits of depression and had threatened suicide, but never attempted it. A month ago, when witness last saw her, she was very miserable. There was insanity in the family. —Mrs. Varley, of 16, Senior street, said that she had been very strange and unhappy. On the morning that she left her situation she said that she would have gone into the canal only the police were there. On Monday week she saw her, and she said that she did not know where she was going. —Mrs. Chapman, of 7, Waverley-terrace where the deceased lodged, said the deceased ‘must have taken, unknown to her, a bottle of iodine from her dresser—Rev. B. C. H. Andrews, Chaplain of the Kensal Green Cemetery, said that he was walking down the main path of the cemetery on the 13th inst., when he saw a woman, who was walking in front of him, about to drink something from a bottle. He noticed afterwards that it had a red label, and knew that it was poison. He snatched the bottle away and asked what she was doing, but she made no reply. He called assistance, and the police eventually removed her. There was the stain of the poison on her lips.—P.C. 278 X said he took charge of the woman, who had drunk the whole contents of the bottle. She said, "I thought it was carbolic acid. I wanted something stronger than this. I thought I should have been dead before now.” He applied an emetic and she was taken to the station, where she remarked that next time she would take something stronger, as she was tired of her life. She was removed to the Infirmary —Dr, Stewart, medical superintendent, said was very violent, tore herself, and made several attempts to take her life whilst in the institution. She refused food, and they had to artificially feed her. She became so violent that they had to put her in a strait jacket. Witness had examined the body and found long-standing disease of the heart, death being due to syncope, from heart disease and melancholia, and accelerated by the taking of the iodine and the struggles in refusing food. —The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence