The Tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) Riverside Drive, New York

It was a freezing February visit to NYC; nighttime temperatures down to -8C and daytime only up to -1C in the sun, -10 with windchill taken into account. I wanted to visit Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn and I would happily have braved the subarctic weather conditions. But I could hardly expect the mother of my children to risk frostbite trailing around after me. We compromised and went to visit the tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, which was a short ride on the IRT up to 125th Street Station in Harlem (‘Up to Lexington, one-two-five’, the Velvet Underground playing in my head the whole way) and a 15-minute walk to Riverside Drive and Grant’s Mausoleum. To get inside you have to go to the General Grant National Memorial Visitor Centre across the road and ask one of the Park Rangers if they will let you in. There were only three us wanting to see the mausoleum on a bitterly cold midweek morning; the Ranger told us that we could only stay in there for 10 minutes for health and safety reasons, the temperature being so low. To be honest, out of the freezing wind the chilly mausoleum felt almost balmy.

The National Park Service leaflet about the mausoleum says that Grant was “a plain-spoken unassuming man who studiously avoided pomp and ceremony.” It is ironic then that the nation decided to honour him by entombing him in a mausoleum of a grandeur usually considered more appropriate for the last resting places of Emperors, Kings and Pharaohs. General Grant, who was born in Ohio, is credited with winning the Civil War for the Union after struggling to get himself recruited at a suitable rank in the early stages of the conflict. Lincoln eventually promoted him to Lieutenant General after his victory at Chatanooga and he defeated the confederate General Robert E. Lee after a 13-month campaign at the battle of Appomattox. He fell out with Lincoln’s unpopular successor, Andrew Jackson, and became the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 1868. Reconstructing and reuniting the war-ravaged US was an even bigger job than winning the war and Grant struggled with what was an almost impossible task but is now generally considered to have done a creditable job under difficult circumstances. He won re-election to the Presidency in 1872 in a landslide victory but his second term was a struggle and he stood aside for the 1876 election. In 1877 he commenced a two-year world tour, starting in England before moving onto Europe, then India and the rest of Asia, before travelling back to the US via Hawaii. In England he was the guest of the Prince of Wales at Epsom races (where he also met the Duke of Wellington) and he had breakfast with Matthew Arnold, Anthony Trollope and Robert Browning. He was received by Queen Victoria at Windsor, though there were issues about protocol as no one knew how to treat an Ex-president (the then prime minister Benjamin Disraeli thought that he was just a ‘commoner’) and his son Jesse, much to his disgust, was seated at the official banquet with the Royal servants.    

His later years were overshadowed by financial worries. With an income of only $6000 dollars a year and no presidential pension, Grant felt obliged to involve himself in business speculations starting with the ill fated Mexican Southern railroad which went bankrupt in 1884. He then invested $100,000 dollars in his son’s Wall Street brokerage firm, not realising that his son’s partner, a man called Ferdinand Ward, was essentially running a Ponzi scheme. When the scheme eventually crashed Grant not only lost all his money, he found himself in personal debt of $150,000 to William Henry Vanderbilt from whom he had borrowed the money, at Ward’s insistence, to try and save the floundering firm. Vanderbilt offered to forget the debt but Grant refused and repaid all the money by signing over his house to the multi-millionaire and selling off most of his personal possessions. His integrity was heroic; he already knew that he was suffering from the throat cancer that would kill him the following year. Desperate for cash to try and secure the finances of his soon to be widow Julia, Grant began writing articles on his civil war campaigns for The Century Magazine at $500 a time.  These were so well received that he accepted an offer for a book from the magazine to write his memoirs with a 10% royalty. At this point his friend Mark Twain stepped in and made him an alternative offer for the memoir, with a royalty of 70%.  Grant spent his last months writing his memoirs, completing them on 18 July 1885, just five days before he died on July 23rd. 

News of General Grant’s death was widely reported in the British and Colonial press. One of the first full reports came in the Colonial Standard and Jamaica Despatch published in Kingston on the first of August and drawing heavily on a report in the New York Herald which gave extensive details of the General’s dying moments;       

Death of General Ulysses Grant.

THE TWICE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

The "New York Herald," of the 24th July announces the death of General Grant; which took place after nine months of suffering, from cancer on the tongue, at Mount McGregor shortly after eight o'clock on the morning of the preceding day. From scenes at his death bed published in the "Herald," we take the following pathetic example;

The wife almost constantly stroked the forehead and hands of the dying General, and at times, as the passionate longing to prevent the event so near would rise within her, Mrs. Grant pressed both his hands, and, leaning forward, tenderly kissed the face of the sinking man, colonel Fred Grant sat silently, but with evident feeling, though his bearing was that of a soldier at the death-bed of a hero father. U. S. Grant, Jr., was deeply moved, but Jessie bore the scene steadily, and the ladies, while watching with wet cheeks. were silent as befitted the dignity of a life such as was closing before them. The morning had passed five minutes beyond 8 o'clock and there was not one of the strained and waiting watchers but who could mark the nearness of the life tide to its final ebbing. Dr. Douglas noted the nearness of the supreme moment and quietly approached the bedside and bent above it, and while he did so the sorrow of the grey haired physician seemed closely allied with that of the family. Dr Shrady also drew near. It was seven minutes after eight o'clock and the eyes of the General were closing.

His breathing grew more hushed as the last functions of the heart and lungs were hastened to the closing of the Ex-President's life. A peaceful expression seemed to be deepening in the firm and strong lined face, and it was reflected as a closing comfort in the sad hearts that beat quickly under the stress of loving suspense. A minute more passed as the General drew a deeper breath. There was an exhalation like that of one relieved of long and anxious tension. The members of the group were impelled each a step nearer the bed, and each awaited another respiration, but it never came. There was absolute stillness in the room, and a hush of expectant suspense, and no sound broke the silence save the singing of the birds in the pines outside the cottage and the measured throbbing of the engine that all night had waited by the little mountain depot down the slope. “It is all over," quietly spoke Dr. Douglas and there came then heavily to each witness the realization that General Grant was dead.

Then the doctors withdrew, the nurse closed down the eyelids and composed the dead General's head, after which each of the family group pressed to the bedside, one after the other, and touched their lips upon the quiet face so lately stilled.

From the Aberdeen Press and Journal - Tuesday 01 June 1897

Over a decade later the British press followed with interest the building of the General’s mausoleum. This is from the Saffron Walden Weekly News of Friday 09 April 1897;

GENERAL GRANT'S TOMB. The inauguration of the Grant Mausoleum in New York on April 27th promises be one of the most impressive ceremonies ever witnessed in the United States. When General Grant died there was universal desire among his countrymen that his services should be marked in some striking manner, and so long ago 1885 a, committee began to collect funds and inspect designs. The site selected is at Riverside Park, on the banks of the river Hudson, near New York city. For some years the project met with only moderate financial success, but in 1892 there was a great revival of popular feeling in New York city, and in single month £40.000 was subscribed.

Altogether the monument will cost £120,000. It consists of a granite structure 90 feet square. This runs to height of 70ft. and then is surmounted circular cupola 70ft. in diameter which has a pyramidical top. The summit is 150ft. from the base, and as the site selected is 130ft. above the waters of the Hudson, it will form a conspicuous landmark for many miles.

The interior is cruciform, ornamented with sculptures illustrating the life and death of General Grant. These are the work of an American sculptor, Mr J. Massey Rhind. The sarcophagus is porphyry, and the pedestal of dark bluish grey granite. All the exposed faces of the sarcophagus are highly polished, the finish being so smooth that the surfaces are like mirror, reflecting whatever objects are close at hand. The pedestal is square in plan, measuring ten feet ten inches each way. The lower course is made in pieces, with a simple moulding, and is one foot eight inches thick. Above this is a five inch course, also made in pieces. Under this rest two large blocks, ten feet long and five feet wide, and on these rest the pillow blocks, which support the sarcophagus proper and its cover. The total height above the floor the crypt will be seven and half feet. The space inside is large enough to contain the metallic casket of highly-polished copper inside the cedar coffin. The casket of Bessemer steel which now encloses the coffin will be dispensed with, as it is no longer needed, its place being taken by the stone sarcophagus, with I its heavy cover. The only inscription the sarcophagus is: “Ulysses S. Grant.”

The Exeter & Plymouth Gazette of 22 April 1897 focussed on the details of the General’s sarcophagus;

The sarcophagus, in which the remains of Ulysses S. Grant will be placed on the 27th inst. on the Riverside Drive, New York City, is a huge block of granite quarried at Montello, Wisconsin. When uncut, this stone is as being of “a pinkish chocolate colour dashed with specks of black and white,” and when polished, “it becomes indescribably beautiful, the pale pink taking a rich red lustre, and the fine hard grain reflects like a mirror.” The sarcophagus weighs 10 tons. Its dimensions are 10 feet 4 inches long, 5 feet 6 inches wide, and 4 feet 8 inches long. The lid is of marble.  The sarcophagus is supported by two pillar blocks of granite resting on a slab of granite from Massachusetts, the grey of which contrasts admirably with the rich red tone of the sarcophagus. The inscription, with eloquent simplicity, consists only of the name, arranged in three lines, “Ulysses S. Grant.”

And finally, from the Evening News of Wednesday 28 April 1897 details, supplied almost instantly by Reuters via the latest technology of telegraphy, of the inauguration ceremony held the previous day in New York;  

(Reuter’s Cablegram) New York, April 27.—The monument to General Grant which has been erected by private subscription on the Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson, was dedicated to-day, in presence of President M‘Kinley,  ex-President Cleveland, the high officers of the nation and of the various States, the members of the Diplomatic Corps, the survivors of General Grant’s family, including Mrs Sertous and children, and a vast concourse of spectators.

The dedication was marked by splendid pageant on land and water. The weather was favourable on the whole. Lying off the promontory were the American and foreign warships participating in the ceremonies, All were decked with flags and fired salutes in the morning. In the course of the forenoon the sons of Confederate veterans laid a wreath (with crossed swords) on the tomb.

Shortly after nine o'clock President M’Kinley and Mr Hobart, Mrs. Grant, and family, and the official guests, accompanied by an escort, preceded to the monument.   The members of the diplomatic corps, headed by Sir Juliam Pauncefote were also warmly greeted as they passed along. The ceremonies began at half-pest eleven with a brief religious service.

President M‘Kinley then delivered a short address. General Grant, he said, loved peace and told the world that honourable arbitration was the best hope of civilisation. Mr. Horace Porter transferred the monument to the sale-keeping of the city. The march past of troops followed. In this there participated nearly 6000 regular troops, seamen, and marines. The troops were everywhere received with ringing cheers.  They were subsequently received by Mr M’Kinley.

The President afterwards went on board the Dolphin and reviewed the fleet. The city was gaily beflagged and decorated, a feature in the decorative scheme being portraits of General Grant, on which were inscribed his words, ‘Let’s have peace.’

In the evening there was a largely attended reception of foreign and naval officers at Waldorf House. Her majesty’s ship Talbot had a leading place in the foreign line of the international fleet.

General Grant accepts the surrender of General Robert E. Lee

Scenes of Clerical Life; the remarkable story of the Rev. Basil Claude Hudson Andrews (1867-1963? final resting place unknown)

 

This kindly looking old cove is the Reverend Basil Andrews, for forty years the chaplain at Kensal Green Cemetery. The most famous funeral service he conducted, certainly the one he remembered in later life, was for Winston Churchill’s two-year-old daughter Marigold in August 1921. A grief-stricken Churchill asked the assembled press photographers not to take pictures and it is always said that they quietly left without taking any shots of the private funeral. But researching the life of Reverend Andrews I came across a grainy photo on the front page of the Daily Mirror for Saturday 27 August 1921 which shows a clergyman, it must be him, conducting the final part of the service in front of an open grave. Churchill stands with stooped shoulders, supporting himself with a walking stick, by Andrews’ side.  A large crowd of mourners is gathered on the far side of the grave; it seems to have been a very public ‘private’ funeral for the two-year-old. Thirty years later a disgraced Andrews was recalling the funeral for the benefit of a journalist, from the Sunday Dispatch, whose distrust of the cleric’s uncorroborated word was so great that he felt obliged to go and check the story in newspaper files. The Reverend Basil Andrews was, it has to be said, not a man to be trusted.

Basil Claude Hudson Andrews was born at the vicarage of St Luke's, Kentish Town in 1867. His father Charles was the vicar of St Luke's and Basil was the youngest of seven children. He was educated privately at St Edward’s School Oxford and, for reasons which were almost certainly nothing to do with religious conviction, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England.  At the age of 24 he became a missionary in South Africa, where he spent four years before moving on to take up a clerical position in Toronto. In Canada he made his first marriage, to Annie Maud Rackham in December 1895. The couple had two children, a son Arthur who was born in 1897 and a daughter Naomi who was born in January 1901 but died just a month later (Arthur was also to die young, in 1922 at the age of 25). The marriage evidently did not go well because a couple of years later Basil returned to England apparently abandoning his wife and young son in Canada. He then spent three years as a curate at the parish of St Leonards, in Watlington, Oxfordshire before his tenure ended in mysterious circumstances. In 1907 he became the chaplain at Kensal Green cemetery, a job he remained in for the next forty years. 

The 1911 census shows the 43-year-old Basil living at Flat 5, 89 Elgin Crescent with his 27-year-old ‘wife’, Emma Louise Andrews. In truth Basil and Emma were, ironically, living together without benefit of clergy. Basil was, after all, still married to Annie in Canada. At the same time he also seems to have been carrying on a relationship with a woman called Alice Clark as she gave birth to a son in Hackney in 1913 and Basil is the registered father. Despite this his relationship with Emma seems to have been a serious one; they were certainly still masquerading as man and wife on the 1921 census, though she may not have known about his amorous adventures in Hackney. Basil could have made an honest woman of Emma as his first wife died in March 1921. He may have been able to marry her even earlier; Annie remarried in 1915, either because she and Basil had divorced or because she thought she could get away with bigamy. In any case Basil was free to remarry by 1921 at the latest but there is no record of a marriage ever taking place.  Electoral records show Emma as living at Elgin Avenue with Basil until 1931; she then disappears from the record, untraceable now because Andrews was never her real name.

Financial difficulties as well as Basil’s reluctance to pop the question were probably the cause of the breakdown of his relationship with Emma. By 1925 Basil was bankrupt, owing £6500 to his creditors and having only £300 in assets. Although he wasn’t admitting it to anyone, Basil was a gambler and a spendthrift. To the court he claimed that he had only got into financial difficulties trying to help out an unnamed friend. This is from the Kensington Post of 09 January 1925;

A CHAPLAIN’S GUARANTEE, At Bankruptcy Buildings, Carey Street, the first meeting was held of the creditors under a receiving order made against Basil Claude Hudson Andrews, clerk in Holy Orders, whose address was given as Elgin Avenue. The receiving order was made on the debtor’s own petition. From the statement made by Mr. Walter Boyle, Senior Official Receiver, it appeared that the debtor estimated his liabilities at £6,500, and his assets at £300, apart from a claim of against a friend, who was an undischarged bankrupt. The debtor was ordained in 1890. He had taken duty in South Africa and in Canada, and from 1906 until 1908, when he was appointed chaplain at Kensal Green, he acted as organising secretary for the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society for the dioceses of Oxford and Peterborough. He became guarantor for his friend, who had borrowed £500 from a moneylender, and to meet his guarantee he had himself been forced to obtain loans. In the hope that his friend might repay him, he had borrowed from moneylenders. He attributed his insolvency to the high interest he had to pay. It was decided that the estate should remain in the hands of the Official Receiver.

In 1932 Basil married again, this time a wealthy widow, Edith Isabella Henderson.  Edith, and her money, seem to have kept Basil out of trouble for the next 20 years. He retired from Kensal Green in 1947 and the couple carried on living quietly in the Elgin Crescent flat until Edith died in 1952. Following her death the 85-year-old Basil found himself gradually slipping into a way of life that would eventually make him, temporarily at least, the most famous, and notorious, clergyman in England. Quite what happened we do not know but by 1955 Basil was apparently almost destitute, no longer living at Elgin Crescent, hanging around the Cumberland Hotel in Bayswater, helping himself to continental breakfasts and whatever else he could cadge from the staff or guests, betting heavily on the horses and asking for favours from the other shady characters who used the hotel as a base for their shady activities. 

Jack 'Spot' Comer and his wife Margaret (Rita Molloy) after his acquittal on stabbing charges  

In the hot afternoon of Thursday 11 August 1955 an argument between two middle-aged men broke out outside the Bar Italia on Frith Street in Soho. The argument quickly turned violent and both men pulled out blades. The two combatants were 43-year-old Jacob Colmore aka Jack Comer or Jack Spot and the slightly younger and taller George Arthur Albert Dimeo aka Albert Dimes or Italian Al. The fight, in which both men were seriously injured, was the climax of a long running power struggle between Jewish gangland boss Jack Spot and his one-time protegee Billy Hill. Hill encouraged Dimes to refuse to pay protection money to Spot and the result was the fracas outside the Bar Italia. That no one was killed in the fight is generally credited to Mrs Stone Hyams. the 13 stone wife of a Frith Street greengrocer, who laid about both men with a cast iron frying pan. When Spot found himself in court charged with stabbing Dimes a key witness was the Reverend Basil Andrews who had apparently witnessed the fight from the other side of Frith Street and quite clearly seen Dimes pull his weapon first and inflict the first wound. The jury drew the conclusion that Spot had acted in self defence and he was acquitted.  The Reverends performance in the witness box may have convinced the jury but the police and perhaps more crucially, the press, were not fooled. The police were chary of questioning 88-year-old clergymen on whether he had perjured himself in the witness box but the press had no compunctions. Basil found himself besieged in his rented room by Fleet Street’s finest.

“When I was living in Inverness-terrace,” he later recalled, “I was bombarded by these beastly reporters who have no decency in them and who do nothing but bully and nag and treat you abominably. They came upstairs while I was in bed and when I opened the door, they put their foot in the door and treated me disgracefully. It is a disgrace for the Press to treat a man like at. I believe a reporter of the Daily Telegraph came to my room and he happened to be an extremely nice man. I do not know his name. He asked me lots of questions about my life. He said: ‘Of course, in the future, at some time or other, if you tell us a story it might be worth your while,’ something to that effect.” Garrulous Basil ended up confiding in the nice man from the Daily Telegraph, the newspaper published, the police questioned Basil and by December Spot’s 27-year-old Mrs. Margaret Comer, of Hyde Park Mansions, Marylebone; Peter MacDonough, 45, of Upper Berkeley-street, Mayfair; Morris Goldstein, 43, of Gore - road, Hackney, and Bernard Schack, 53, of Maple-place, Stepney found themselves behind the dock accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice. Basil was the main prosecution witness. According to the daily Express he “said in a pulpit-loud voice at Bow-street court yesterday: “The evidence I gave at the Old Bailey trial of Jack Comer was all lies. I never saw the fight I described; I was not even there. I got £64 for the lies I told.” Under questioning from the prosecution barrister and the 3 counsels for defence he told the court that he had been first approached by McDonough in the Cumberland Hotel, then met Goldstein and Schack before been driven by car next day “to a flat in Hyde Park Mansions from Inverness-terrace, Bayswater, where I was living. At Hyde Park Mansions we went to a flat on the fifth floor. I was shown into a very nicely furnished sitting-room with large armchairs and was introduced to Mrs. Comer. She was extremely nice and offered me a cup of tea. She was very friendly and pleased to see me. I think she expressed herself as being so thankful that I was going to help them. She was in a terrible state of anxiety about her husband. I felt extremely sorry for her. At the end of my first visit to the flat Mrs. Comer gave me a £1 note. . .  I am not positive whether it was £1 or 10s. to pay for a taxi.” Basil was taken to Frith Street to fix the topography of the knife fight in his head, and comprehensively rehearsed in his story before been taken to see Spot’s solicitor to make a statement. The jury found all four defendants guilty. Margaret Comer was fined £50 but the three men were all given jail sentences, McDonough and Schack 12 months and Goldstein two years.

A few months after his wife's conviction for conspiracy, Jack and Rita were attacked by a gang of Billy Hill's enforcers, including Mad Frankie Fraser. In this famous photo Jack shows off his injuries from the attack

The perjuring parson had found himself an unexpected celebrity following the initial trial. The newspapers were keen to find out more about him and contrary to what he told the court in the conspiracy case, it wasn’t just the Daily Telegraph he had spoken to.  Even when he did refuse to speak to journalists some old acquaintances were not so reluctant, turning out to be blabbermouths who could just not stop themselves talking once a reporter flipped open his notebook and asked them a question or two.  This is from the Daily Herald of 26 September 1955;

In the past two years Mr. Andrews appears to have abandoned the settled life which he had hitherto led. For about 40 years he lived at a flat in Elgin-avenue, Maida Vale—first with his wife and later, after she died, alone. Since leaving there two years ago he has had a number of addresses. Mrs. Gertrude Vizard, caretaker of the Elgin-avenue flats, remembers him. "He had many friends at Oxford," she said last night, "and was often visited by a woman from Oxford who had a young daughter. He was a kind and quiet gentleman, but never had much money. I once lent him £8 to settle an income tax demand but he paid me back." The Rev. Basil Andrews had appointments in Canada until came this country in 1901 and became curate at St. Peter's, Eaton-square, S.W. Then for 40 years he was chaplain at Kensal Green Cemetery until he retired in 1947. In the last few years has worked the tough streets of Soho among criminals and girls who have "gone astray."

Even more damaging was the story in the Sunday Dispatch on the 2nd of October 1955 which appeared under the headlines ‘From diamond fields to the West End stage, the strange life of the ‘Jack Spot’ parson, Women travelled miles to hear him preach’;

"The parson with the silver voice." That is how the people of Watlington, Oxfordshire, remember the Rev. Basil Andrews, key witness in the sensational Jack ("Spot") Comer case. Older parishioners recall the tall, dark, wavy-haired curate whose brilliant preaching filled the church 45 years ago. They remember that many women came from miles around to hear him. For three years they thronged to listen to the "dapper" curate. Then Mr. Andrews went as suddenly as he came. "He disappeared from the White House at Church Close with his smartly dressed wife and son one week-end," Mr. Harold Searly, 70-year-old clothier, told me, "In a way we were sorry to him go. We will never forget his three years at St. Luke's Parish Church." Mr. Surly said It was understood that Mr. Andrews left because women parishioners were paying him too much attention. "I was always in the congregation," Mr. Searly added. "So were my sisters. He was so interesting. He helped the church no end. He was a vigorous worker and looked after the choir. Two years ago he came back to our village. I hardly recognised him. He told me he was retired and wanted to meet old friends."

Mr. F. Storer, of the Mill House. Cooksham-road, Watlington, told me: "He stayed here sometimes with my mother and father. He was a great friend of the family. I know of no relationship between us, though my sister, Mrs. Sybil Owen. of Eastleigh, Southend, Garsington, Oxford, has been described as his niece. I saw him about four years ago. He came here with Sybil and I drove him around. My mother knew him before she married my father, who was organist at St. Luke's Church.” Friends of Mr. Arthur Owen, Sybil's husband, told me: "Mrs. Owen has been away for three years. She returned Just over a week ago. I was surprised to see that she has become a blonde after three years away."

Later. Mr. Andrews became minister at All Souls Church of England Chapel in Kensal Green Cemetery. He had a flat in Elgin Avenue, W. In the past ten years he was a fairly frequent visitor to a public house at Kensal Green. He would go in, drink five pints of beer and have a set lunch. It was not unusual for him to leave a half a crown tip. In the neighbourhood people told me: " He used to buy a midday racing paper. He telephoned his bets. Sometimes his language was unclerical."

In Soho Mr. Andrews was also well known. "In the years I've known him he always liked a gamble," a friend said. The silver tongue of the whitehaired. bent-shouldered Rev. Basil Claude Andrews has not deserted him in his 89th year. He tells how, at the age of 23, he went to South Africa as a missionary. He shook hands with Cecil Rhodes within 60 minutes of disembarking at Cape Town. But for his wanderlust, he says, he could have been a bishop in Toronto, Canada. After three years In South Africa. and wandering round the diamond fields of Kimberley, meeting and drinking with "some of the worst scoundrels in the world," Andrews sailed for Canada. There. in Toronto he became secretary to the bishop and priest-vicar at the cathedral. Mr. Andrews's next recollection takes him to London's West End and he believes the Lyric Theatre. There he had tea on the stage with actress Marie Löhr while the curtain was down between acts. Another experience he tells about was reading the burial service at Kensal Green Cemetery over the child of Winston Churchill. who was then Colonial Secretary. (This service—on two-year-old Marigold Frances Churchill — has been verified in newspaper files). Not long ago. Mr. Andrews says. he went for help--because he was hard up—to the Rt. Rev. Cyril Eastaugh, Bishop of Kensington. "But." says Mr. Andrews. his thin lips tightening, "the bishop was most unsympathetic. He despises me because I have borrowed money and not pad it back, and in particular, borrowed it from members of the Church."

After the trial, and rather unusually or an 88-year-old man, the Reverend Basil disappears from the official record. Given that he was 88 he can’t have lived for very much longer but there is no trace of a death record for Basil Andrews in the UK, in Ireland or abroad. Did embarrassed relatives spirit him away? Quite possibly; there are rumours that he died in 1963, though no records are available to back this up. The rumours originate from Australia; his son with Annie Clark moved to New Zealand in the 1920’s. Perhaps Basil spent his final years living down under, living under an assumed name.

His death isn’t the only mystery still unsolved from Basil’s colourful life. James Morton in an article for the Law Society mentions in passing that Basil lived for 20 years with a woman called Ruby Young. Coincidentally Ruby was also someone who achieved national notoriety as a result of appearing as a witness in a court case. Her 15 minutes of fame had come in 1907 when she gave evidence in the trial of Robert Wood who was accused of murdering Phylis Dimmock, a prostitute, in Camden Town. Phylis had been found at her lodgings with her throat cut clutching a postcard of a rising sun. A photograph of a postcard was printed in the papers and Wood, an artist, came forward to admit not only that the drawing was his but that he had known Phylis. Wood also persuaded Ruby Young, an old girlfriend of his, to give him an alibi for the night of the murder, but she later changed her mind and went to a journalist and the police with the story. Ruby was called as a prosecution witness and she suddenly found herself famous. It had become clear in the course of her evidence that she had had an intimate relationship with Wood, and she was attractive and not averse to posing for newspaper photographers. This did not go down well with the jury who seemed to believe the defence’s suggestion that Ruby had made the whole thing up to get the £100 reward offered by The News of the World for anyone able to identify the handwriting on the rising sun postcard. Wood was found not guilty. If Morton is correct when would Ruby Young have lived with Basil? We know that Basil did live with a woman for more than 20 years; the woman who on the 1911 and 1921 census and the electoral roll is named as Emma Louisa Andrew. Are Ruby and Emma the same person living under different names? 

Is this Emma Louisa Young?