Illustrated Police News – Saturday 31 October 1896 was reporting the dreadful scene on a London omnibus whereby a lady fell into shock at the sight of the knees of a collection of boys who had just been playing football. I’d love to know who the lady was as she was a member of The National Vigilance Association. My guess is that it could have been Millicent Garrett (1847-1929); Feminist and Suffragist.  or one of her associates.

The editorial is the funniest from that era I have read in a long time.

I was beginning to get it until I reached the part that said “My father is my son, and I am my mother’s mother; my sister is my daughter, and I am grandmother to my brother”.

Imagine drawing a family tree based around those facts.

So, if your family were living in Faversham, Kent, in 1760 and you have relatives named Cashick and Harwood -  it would be great to hear from you, but please allow a little time to study your genealogy.

After giving birth to 9 children, the love of her life dying in 1861 and then seemingly spending the next 40 odd years surrounded by a household that consisted mainly of gossiping, conservative upper-class stuffy sycophants – who can blame her.

It’s my view that in actual fact Queen Victoria was a highly intelligent, creative, forward thinking and extremely frustrated individual.  The “we are not amused” syndrome which seemed to embody her was in actual fact created out so many people who were so against anything apart from 19th-century stuffy social rules and counter regulations. In reality it was Victorian society itself who generated the “we are not amused” label – not Queen Victoria (she never used those words).

In 1897 the year of her Jubilee she very nearly refused to appear in public and in her own way threatened to go on strike because of the attitude of those around her.  The truth of the matter was that Queen Victoria was at war with her very own household.  And it was Royal Court that despised her liaison with Abdul Karim whom she had exalted to extraordinary heights.  Apart from being a loyal Indian servant, Abdul Karim was in fact a confidant and Muslim teacher to the Queen.  She doted on this man which further exasperated the Royal household and her immediate family.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was a series of photographs that were taken of the Queen and Abdul Karim and later published in The Graphic and other publications in October 1897.  In one of the photographs the Indian servant is looking directly into the camera lens, whilst the Queen is apparently receiving lessons from him.  But the nature of the photograph questions who actually is the master and who is the servant.  These images sent repercussions around the Empire.

To the unsuspecting newspaper reader they are pictures of certain “interest” where Her Majesty is viewed in a somewhat different light.  But for her immediate family it marked the beginning of the end of a relationship that for many was too intimate and lasting far too long.

If you click this link you will be up to see the original article and the plate that was created as an image from the original photograph.  There is also a small editorial on the bottom right hand side of the page.

In hindsight 115 years on I think we can all make up our mind of the potential political and social timebomb that was building between the Queen Empress and her exalted servant.

see here

You have been warned!

“An enormous load of anxiety has been lifted from the public mind by the news that everything is likely to be well with the passengers and crew of the “Titanic”, and there is also every reason for believing that the leviathan will be enabled to reach port safely.

From the first, there was the strongest hope that the giant liner would be able (at all events) to keep afloat until assistance arrived, and several steamships would you to succour her within a few hours.  These latter have, apparently all been able to reach the disabled vessel, and the passengers have doubtless transferred to some of the attendant boats.  An unofficial message states that the “Titanic” herself is in tow of the “Capathia”.  If this be the case, it is almost a matter of certainty that the loss of the finest steamship ever launched will not have to be recorded.

It has been claimed that the “Titanic” is unsinkable.  The result will show how far the claim is justified; but the fact that the vessel did not founder goes to show that her preservative qualities, at all events, of a remarkable character.  For it can well be imagined what the impact of such a monster must have been.  The “Titanic”, indeed is a floating town.  She had on board no less than 2385 souls; and even that number, we may assume does not represent a full complement of passengers and crew.

It is extremely unfortunate that this queen of the ocean liners should have come to grief upon a maiden voyage.  But the conditions were quite abnormal.  It is seldom that such an enormous quantity of icebergs should be about.  One of the telegram states that the icefield is 70 miles in the extent.  We can realise the terrible danger which this expresses.  Several vessels have simply had to thread their way through the lanes of bergs, and the pity is that the “Titanic” was not able to come clear from the peril.

However if no lives have been lost, we shall not have much cause for regret, and we can only trust that no other vessel beside the “Titanic” has become a victim of the floating ice.”

The press were reporting that this fresh new Edwardian personality had sold the copyright to publish his life in prison for “a large sum of money” – £240 (about £13,694.40 in today’s money).

What the Home Office thought of this venture was bound to be disapproval to say the very least. For many in Devon and Westminster, John Lee, the loose canon, was an unknown quantity and a potential danger to the establishment both in the city and along the English Riviera where the truth of the Emma Keyse murder remains shrouded in an unspoken ‘silence’ to this very day. John Lee was a popular man with the general public and his words could hold serious influence.

As far as cash was concerned, Lee had definitely received an advance to lavish on himself, his ‘poor’ mother and a collection of unsuspecting women.

Any hopes of renewing his relationship with Kate Farmer were dashed as she had married first James Parrish in 1886 and then after a certain scandal a decorator called Pomeroy.

The book is a drippy, sentimental, one-sided account of the innocent John Lee. A man in the wrong place at the wrong time. It sold in its thousands and no doubt the proprietors of Lloyds were rubbing their hands in glee at the sale of this world exclusive.

Here is a copy of the book. Slightly unusual as this version with exactly the same words was published in America. It’s in PDF format – enjoy, although don’t necessarily believe (click the image)!

I found this White Star Line advertisement in The Western Times – exactly 100 years old. Here they are promoting their premium ships, Olympic and Titanic. Three weeks later the sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Meanwhile Olympic‘s first major mishap occurred six months before this advert on 20 September 1911, when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight. Olympic became famous as a First World War fully armed troop ship.

“In the early hours of 12 May 1918, while en route for France with US troops under the command of Captain Bertram Fox Hayes, Olympic sighted a surfaced U-boat 500 m (1,600 ft) ahead. Her gunners opened fire at once, and she turned to ram the submarine, which immediately crash dived to 30 m (98 ft) and turned to a parallel course”.

“Almost immediately afterwards Olympic struck the submarine just aft of her conning tower and her port propeller sliced through U-103‘s pressure hull. The crew of U-103 blew her ballast tanks, scuttled and abandoned the submarine. This is the only known incident in World War I in which a merchant vessel sank an enemy warship. Olympic returned to Southampton with at least two hull plates dented and her prow twisted to one side, but not breached”.

Olympic did not stop to pick up survivors, but continued on to Cherbourg”.  The ship was decommissioned in 1935 and sold.

Reginald Gwynne Templer (left) lived in Teignmouth. He was the eldest of six children born to Reginald William Templer and his wife Emily.

The Templer family built a church at small village on the Stover estate Teigngrace where Reginald’s grandfather was Rector.

At the time of the Emma Keyse’ murder, the link between the Templer family and the Emma’s family was not known to outsiders. It has since been suggested that Reginald Gwynne Templer was in fact a confidante of Emma Keyse and a regular visitor at The Glen.

During the Victorian era the mere suggestion of a discreet liaison between a gentleman and a female servant (Elizabeth Harris – image: top, right)) was out of the question but a blind eye was turned if such a relationship was not in the public domain. It is my long-held view that a relationship between Reginald Gwynne Templer and the cook, Elizabeth Harris did take place. At the time of the murder Elizabeth was pregnant (see the birth certificate).

The cover-up and false evidence that followed is quite remarkable. You only need to read the witness statements I have transcribed for this website.

Read the full research here.