The three burials of Captain Elton; Erle Godfrey Elton (1869-1899) Kensal Green Cemetery

How many times was Captain Erle Godfrey Elton of the Black Watch buried? Some sources say he was buried on the battlefield of Magersfontein in South Africa where he died on 11th December 1899. And then he was supposed to have been disinterred and reburied in the West End Cemetery in Kimberley. Later still his body was brought to England and laid to rest in an impressive mausoleum on Central Avenue in Kensal Green Cemetery. If you peer through the glassless windows of the mausoleum you can still see his coffin sitting in front of a marble angel. Cemetery records say that this happened in June 1907. But the burial records also say that he was interred in the cemetery in February 1900 in plot 22564, just a couple of months after he had died nearly 6000 miles away. On the same page of the register a clerk has added another entry for ‘Elton grave in reserve 37929’; this is the plot of which on the mausoleum stands. Records show that 25 other people were also buried in plot 22564 between 1871 and 1905! It clearly wasn’t a common grave so 22564 must be a loculi in one the Catacombs at the cemetery that was used to hold coffins before they were placed elsewhere. Four burial plots in the space of two months and three burials? I can’t access any original sources for the South African side of this story but in the 10 or 11 weeks available there scarcely seems to have been enough time to bury Erle in Magersfontein, dig him up and rebury him in Kimberley, dig him up again, rebox him in a lead lined coffin and send him to England by ship ( though the journey only took a couple of weeks it seems, even in 1900) and then bury him again in Kensal Green. But perhaps it is true; I don’t suppose soldiers on the battlefield waited to find out what the families wishes were or what were the armies plans, before burying their fallen comrades. I imagine it was not uncommon for the army to then remove buried soldiers from battlefield graves if they had a cemetery close by they could use to give them a more formal interment. And by the time that had happened Captain Elton’s family had probably requested that his body be repatriated.     

Erle Godfrey Elton was born in June 1869 and was the son of Colonel Frederick Coulthurst Elton of the Royal Artillery and Olivia Georgiana Elton (nee Power). He was educated at Wellington College, and was a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst. He came from a long line of Army men; his father had fought in the Crimean War and was present at the siege of Sebastopol and had won an Order of the Bath, been mentioned in dispatches and been awarded a Turkish Order of Medjidie, 3rd Class for his part in the battle of Tel-El-Kebir in Egypt. His grandfather was a Captain in the 40th Foot and married an Admirals daughter and his great grandfather was a Lieutenant in the 11th Foot and was taken prisoner and held at Forte de Scaope, Ostend, for two years. After Sandhurst Erle joined his own regiment, the Black Watch, in August 1888, was promoted to Lieutenant two years later, in August 1890 and became a Captain in July 1898. He saw no active service until October 1899 when his battalion embarked for South Africa and the Boer War. They arrived at the Cape on 13th November, his regiment forming part of the Highland Brigade under Major General Wauchope and were part of the Kimberley Relief Force. They were initially employed in the De Aar-Naauwpoort district, joining their brigade on the Modder River shortly before the action at Magersfontein. Ironically, Elton was to die because the army insisted on using the standard British tactic against an entrenched position that had been used successfully at the battle in which his father had so distinguished himself and won so many honours, Tel-El-Kebir. This was an approach march at night in close order to maintain cohesion, followed by deployment into open order within a few hundred yards of the objective and a frontal attack with the bayonet at first light. At the ridge of Magersfontein, with rough scrub, steep slopes and an enemy that was fully aware of British tactics and positions this was a disaster. The Black Watch alone lost 93 men, including not just Erlea but the brigade commander Major General Wauchope, and had 210 wounded as the Boer army massacred them.

Erle's father, Colonel Frederick Coulthurst Elton

 The inscription over the Mausoleum door reads:

In loving memory of Erle, Captain Royal Highlanders (Black Watch). The good and beloved son of Colonel and Mrs Elton who gave up his life for Queen and Country at the battle of Magersfontein 11th December 1899.

This resting place is dedicated to him by those who are heartbroken at his loss. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.

Although only one coffin can be seen inside the mausoleum four further burials took place; I suspect that there is also a vault beneath, possibly accessed from outside the mausoleum itself. Erle’s father was buried here in December 1919 and his mother in May 1929. Two further female family members were also buried here as late as 1956 and 1969.  

The Campo Santo of East London; St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Leyton

At 43 acres St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery is relatively big by London standards, bigger than Abney Park, bigger than Brompton, bigger than West Norwood, and, rather surprisingly, bigger than both sides of Highgate combined. It doesn’t feel it, mainly because of the lack of landscaping, I think. You can see clear from one end of the cemetery to the other with barely a tree in the way to break up the view. Stand in the middle and religious statues surround you on all sides, apparently stretching out to infinity, countless Christs exposing bleeding hearts, myriad mothers of God as Madonna nursing the Christ child, or as mater dolorosa cradling him crucified or standing alone, her heart pierced by seven swords; however she is portrayed she is always suffering. And there are the saints, proliferating like reflections in a house of mirrors; the Pauls, the Benedicts, the Francis’, the Christophers, the Michaels (the dragon killers are always St Michael, most definitely not the far too English St George), the Anthonys, the Cecilias, the Thereses and the Trofimenas (actually, there is only one of them…) 

St Patrick’s has a sister cemetery in West London, St Mary’s in Kensal Green. As you would expect St Mary’s has a better class of clientele than her sister in the East End. There are better monuments, more mausoleums and a more catholic selection of Catholics than the Irish, Italians and Poles who make up the majority of the burials at St Patrick’s. Both cemeteries stand by railway lines but the tube at St Mary’s is much more obtrusive; you can stand amongst the graves and watch Central line trains pulling in and out of Leyton Station. Both are still very much working cemeteries; Catholics don’t much go in for cremations and to meet persistent demand for new graves both cemeteries resort to banking over old graves. But that is good news for the invalided priests of the Dioceses of Westminster, Arundel & Brighton, Brentwood, Portsmouth and Southwark who are the recipients of the revenue from the cemetery, as a sign tells you by the entrance. 

I am rather fond of St Patrick’s and have covered it before here and here. The most famous burial is that of ripper victim Mary Jane Kelly; we will come onto her in a minute. Also buried here are various relatives of Alfred Hitchcock, who was born locally, above the family grocery business at 517 Leytonstone High Road, Timothy Evans, who was wrongly hanged for one of the murders at 10 Rillington Place, and actor Stephen Lewis who played Blakey in the 70’s comedy series ‘On The Buses’.  I have already written about the four nuns who drowned in the Wreck of the Deutschland and, my favourite story from St Patrick’s, Vital Douat, the man who buried himself (for an insurance scam). 

Mary Jane Kelly, or Marie Jeanette Kelly as she is described on her headstone, the last iconic victim of Jack the Ripper was buried at St Patricks Roman Catholic Cemetery on Monday 19th November 1888. The Belfast Telegraph carried an account of the funeral published on the same day;

FUNERAL OF MARIE KELLY. The funeral of Marie Jeannette Kelly the victim of the late Spitalfields murderer took place today at Leytonstone Cemetery, Essex, in the presence of a large number of people. An hour before the remains left the Shoreditch mortuary many hundreds of onlookers assembled in the vicinity and watched while the final arrangements were bring made. The coffin was placed upon an open hearse drawn by two horses, and was followed by two mourning carriages containing the man Joseph Barnett, who had lived with the deceased, and several of the unfortunate woman & associates, who gave evidence at the inquest. The coffin bore the following inscription 'Marie Jeannette Kelly, died November 9th 1888 aged 25 years’, and on it were placed two crosses, and a cross made of heartsease and white flowers.  The whole of the funeral expenses were borne by Mr. Wilton, sexton of St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, who for many years has shown practical sympathy for the poorer classes.

In 2015 retired colorectal surgeon Wynne Weston-Davies published ‘The Real Mary Kelly’, a book which argued that the murder victim’s true identity was his great aunt Elizabeth Weston-Davies, who he believes was hiding in Whitechapel to escape her abusive husband. Weston-Davies claims his great aunt’s husband, Francis Spurzheim Craig, is Jack the Ripper and that he murdered the other victims in order to lay a false trail before he killed his wife! Ripperology is full of farfetched theories and despite the book’s publishers managing to wrangle articles in the Daily Mail and Express, no one took this one particularly seriously until the grande dame of the Whitechapel Murders, Patricia Cornwell, got herself involved. In a surprise move in 2017 Cornwell commissioned the University of Leicester team who had identified Richard III, to carry out a feasibility study on running DNA tests on Marie Jeanette Kelly’s mortal remains. The newspapers went crazy! Was DNA going to crack the ultimate cold case and would science finally put an end to over a century of pointless speculation about the identity of Whitechapel Jack? The answer was no. After taking Ms Cornwell’s money and carrying out a field study at St Patrick’s the University of Leicester forensics team came to the conclusion that there was no realistic chance of identifying Mary Kelly’s remains in its common grave. The exact burial location was impossible to determine (Kelly’s headstone is in the ‘approximate’ spot but the siting always involved quite a bit of guesswork), which meant possibly digging up several hundred bodies before the correct one could be identified. Wynne Weston-Davies’ theory remains a theory and Kelly remains undisturbed in her final resting place.