Trawling the papers of the day …

Papers carrying stories of Elsie Cook’s killing and subsequent funeral contain some in-depth details on the events of Saturday 23rd June 1928. They include mentioning the gathering and size of the crowds, both outside Elsie’s home and along the processional route of the cortège. There were over 2,000 people in all, lining the route all the way up to the gates of her final resting place. The reporting recaps Elsie’s tragic killing, just 7 days earlier, on the evening of Saturday 16th June, by my great uncle Trevor John Edwards. The reportage also names all those those present at the grave side, for the committal, in Aberdare Cemetery, Hirwaun. The general public were not allowed in; the cemetery gates and walls were surrounded by police. This must have been some huge event, indeed!

Especially for a non-famous person, the funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Aberdare, with crowds lining the route all the way from her home in 4 Gwawr Street, Aberaman, through Aberdare town centre itself, then ending up at the major public cemetery 2.1 miles (3.37Km) away. The singing must have been heart wrenching! My Mother, who married Trevor’s nephew some 14 years later, was only 7 at the time of this funeral, but my Grandparents (now buried in the same cemetery as Elise) lived just up the hill from the main gates. In fact, back in those days, before any of the recent buildings blocking the view down the hill were erected, they could have probably seen the entrance to this ever-expanding necropolis, over the “Common Acre” field and the old men’s allotments in the distance. Given it was a Saturday, my Grandfather could have been working down the mines (which he did from the age of about 15 years old, through to retirement) but I just wonder if they – my Grandmother, in particular – walked the few minutes down the hill from Broncynon Terrace, to be present with the crowds flocking to the gates? Little could they have realised how this young woman’s story would be entwined with our own family, in just under a decade and a half later.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, and with video footage, Elsie is buried in a plot with Albert Cook, her brother, aged 11. Albert was buried some three years before Elsie, on 10 July 1925. Also in the grave is her sister, Iris, 13, buried four years after Elsie’s death, on 15 March 1932. Poor thing (Iris) was 7 when her little brother died, and around 10 at her sister’s killing. Talk about ACEs! (Adverse Childhood Experiences): these dear children certainly had more than their fair share. What struck me most on visiting this grave, in 2023, was the lack of a headstone, especially after such a tragedy and truly moving event for all present. Imagine if everyone lining the route had contributed just a penny each towards a headstone, the site could have been marked in perpetuity; instead, Elise lies there in an unmarked spot.

Newspapers of the day say how, after the burial, Elsie’s mother, Annie Cook (olim Gittings, 1880 – 1967) became friends with Trevor’s mother, Mary Jane Wood / Edwards / Goodwin (1867 – 1939), my paternal great grandmother. Trevor’s father, Henry H.G. Edwards (1862 – 1912) had died long before these sad events, after numerous episodes of severe mental illness triggered, not least, by his 19 year old daughter’s death by suicide: Henrietta Edwards (1890 – 1909). In the non-conformist Welsh valleys, back in 1909, suicide would have been a true shock-horror story, filled with sadness, of course, but also shrouded in a heavy pall of religious guilt, social stigma and public shame for those left behind. Henrietta’s story is for another day. Meanwhile, Trevor’s stepfather, Thomas Whitbread (1868 – 1950), was however, recorded in the papers as being present at Elsie’s grave for the committal.

Elsie’s resting place is not far away from the family grave containing Trevor’s father (Henry), his sister, Henrietta, his mother (Mary Jane) and step father (Thomas Whitbread). No more than a few paces away from Elsie’s grave is that of Trevor’s sister, Amy Evans (olim Edwards), my paternal grandmother, who died of tuberculosis just three years after Elsie’s killing and her brother Trevor’s hanging.

Map of Elsie’s grave and some of Trevor’s immediate family – my paternal relatives

How times change!

According to Ancestry.co.uk, Elsie was the third of twelve children, some of whom died very young. The household was already large when the National Census was taken, in 1921. Some of Elsie’s siblings were born in such rapid succession that her poor mother hardly had a break from pregnancy, from the age of 22 to 38. The last child to be born was Iris, in 1918. Little did the household realise how it would be changed, so drastically, in the decade following the Census. It is surely an absolute horror for parents to lose a child in death; back then, of course, so many families did. But the impact of losing one through unlawful killing – especially in the brutal way Elsie died – was something, presumably, her parents and siblings could never forget or get over. May the Cook family rest in peace.

Record of Elsie and her family, in the 1921 Census