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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: oldcrone on Thursday 15 April 10 17:59 BST (UK)
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I've just found out that my great-grandfather committed suicide in 1922, fairly gruesomely.
I know that, at this time, suicide was considered a crime, but I haven't been able to ascertain (via a quick google search) whether he would have been buried in unconsecrated ground; or would he have been cremated? Is it likely in either case that there's a headstone?
The other thing I'm wondering is the effect on his wife and children; how would they have been regarded/treated in view of the suicide?
Clara
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I have a family member who committed suicide age 36 in 1932.
She has a normal grave in a cemetery but no headstone until her grandaughter sorted one out in the last 2 years.
I think that was more through lack of money in the 1930's though.
She was the mother of two girls aged 7 and 10 at the time.
Dad had to go out to work and couldn't cope with them so they were put in a Dr Barnado's home.
Cremations weren't that popular back then.
Carol
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Many thanks, Carol :)
It might mean that there's a headstone somewhere. I got the impression that suicides were buried out of sight/mind at this time.
Clara
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They seem to have changed the law about suicide in the 60s but the refusal to bury suicides in Church of England grounds changed much earlier, about the 1870s I think, but i am not sure of the exact date, claytonbradley
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A suicide victim in my family in 1901 was buried in the Free Church section of the local municipal cemetary. This in Boston, Lincs.
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I understand that an 1823 statute (Burial of Suicide Act 1823 (4 Geo. IV) legalized the burial of suicides in consecrated ground, but religious services were not permitted until 1882. In the year 1823 it was enacted that the body of a suicide should be buried privately between the hours of nine and twelve at night, with no religious ceremony. In 1882 this law was altered by the Internments (felo de se) Act, 1882. where every penalty was removed except that internment could not be solemnised by a burial service, and the body could now be committed to the earth at any time, and with such rites or prayers as those in charge of the funeral thought fit or werre able to procure.
Stan
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One of the shocks I discovered when I embarked on the family tree was that my grandfather committed suicide in 1929.
Dad never mentioned it, and I have no idea where he was buried. Clearly, for him and his siblings, it was a shameful episode. For me, a surprise, but not shameful and I just wonder what drove him to such a desperate act.
meles
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Thank you, for all your thoughts/opinions: I appreciate it.
And thanks Meles: I'm waiting for the newspaper report about my g-grandfather. I only have my uncle and my mother alive, and neither of them have any recollection of the death of their grandfather (he died before they were born, in fact, before my grandfather married my grandmother, so it was easy to keep the suicide secret). However, I can't imagine what could drive someone to cut their own throat - such a desperate and bloody act.
Clara
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Hi Clara
If you do find a newspaper report, it can tell you quite a lot.
My great-grandfather also committed suicide - he drowned himself, on a second attempt. He was in his 60's, but his reason was that his first wife died at the age of 46, of cancer...he met another lady, remarried, and she was also diagnosed with cancer. He actually killed himself and she was still living. Tragic. What she must have felt like!
He was buried with his first wife :-\ I learned most of this from the newspaper cutting. This was in 1946.
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However, I can't imagine what could drive someone to cut their own throat - such a desperate and bloody act.
Clara
The straight-edge razor was also called the "cut-throat razor" because it was dangerous enough to cut a man, or woman's, throat. This razor would be readily available.
Stan
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However, I can't imagine what could drive someone to cut their own throat - such a desperate and bloody act.
Clara
The straight-edge razor was also called the "cut-throat razor" because it was dangerous enough to cut a man, or woman's, throat. This razor would be readily available.
Stan
That's what my relative used to kill herself. Her brother's razor, who was staying with them at the time.Sad....very sad.
Carol
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My great, great grandfather committed suicide in 1894. He is buried in an unmarked grave. This was in a rural village in Suffolk. He was buried on the day of the coroners inquest.
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My grandfather's death certificate says "Hanged himself whilst of unsound mind". I understand that it was usual to attribute suicude to an unsound mind.
Have others found that?
meles
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Hi,
My grandfather commited suicide in the 1940`s by shotgun. As far as i know he is buried with his parents, haven`t been able to find their grave as yet so am unable to confirm this. It was known as a family secret but never talked about.
My mother had a photograph of her father in law and we were always told to never let my grandmother know that we had it. Apparently she destroyed all photos of her husband when he died and my father only had one that his Aunt had kept.
My grandfather death certificate stated death by gun shot wounds self inflicted. I wish i could have met him to tell him no matter what his troubles things would have got better.
Regards
Sarah
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Can anyone enlighten me on what happened to a Catholic committing suicide in 1918. We are having a family "discussion" on this.
That is, were they allowed a church burial?
Edited to add, he is buried amongst other family, with a headstone.
Thanks
Annie
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My understanding is that suicide is the greatest sin a Catholic can commit - as it admits to despair.
Therefore very few suicides are buried in consecrated ground.
That's why I asked my question about "being of unsound mind" - I wonder if that was a get out clause - if the suicide was mad, then he could not have been in despair, therefore he could be buried in consecrated ground.
But that's my supposition and I look forward to others' views.
meles
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I've just found out that my great-grandfather committed suicide in 1922, fairly gruesomely.
I know that, at this time, suicide was considered a crime, but I haven't been able to ascertain (via a quick google search) whether he would have been buried in unconsecrated ground; or would he have been cremated? Is it likely in either case that there's a headstone?
The other thing I'm wondering is the effect on his wife and children; how would they have been regarded/treated in view of the suicide?
Clara
Hi Clara,
One of my G.Uncles shot himself which was dreadful for the family, they always said that it was because his wife was very ill, he had just lost his best friend etc no one mentioned the war.
It caused quite a stir at the time because he was a famous man in his day. When I was a child I found all the newspaper cuttings. It was considered to be a dreadful family secret! He was buried in the family grave.
Now since I have been doing the family history, I have discovered that he was a gunner in WW1, he was also an NCO which made him responsible for his men. Having lost one if not two of his brothers in the trenches, I am inclined to think that the poor man suffered what they now call post traumatic stress disorder.
A lot of men in the 20's had seen the horrors of the trenches, They came home to get on with life as if it had all never happened.
I lived through WW2, there are things that I will never forget. But we were all supposed to get on with it! No counselling for any of those generations, life after the war went on as usual.
Rabbit B
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My great, great grandfather was of an unsound mind when he topped himself with strychnine.
I reckon he was buried on the day of the coroners inquest just after the inquest itself. They do say suicide burials often took place in the hours of darkness. The village is Letheringham in Suffolk and the church is a quaint one tucked away behind a farm. The churchyard is about 1 acre.
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My grandmother killed herself in 1901. Reading the newspaper reports it is fairly obvious that she was suffered from undiagnosed post natal depression, having had 2 children with her 70 year old husband in 4 years of marriage.
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My GGrandmother's death cert. has cause of death as "Drowning, she having cast herself into the Shropshire Union Canal whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed"
That was in 1938. Spent the last two years looking for a grave or burial......but to no avail :(
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Not meaning to be impertinent, but it seems relevant to ask whether the body is known to have been recovered?
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If the body was not recovered how would they know the cause of death was drowning ;D
Stan
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;D, yes the body was recovered!! death cert issued after coroners inquest.
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If the body was not recovered how would they know the cause of death was drowning ;D
Stan
Clearly they wouldn't Stan, but if she was seen in the water and they were unable to reach her a reasonable inference. Anyway the body was recovered, it was just a thought as the burial has not been traced.
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What I'm missing is why they assumed suicide as opposed to accident ??? I've found one newspaper report, in which the husband assumed she had gone to her mothers..........as in, everything normal?
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Suicide is such a sad thing, my MiL mother took her own life (in the 1970's) and it is still not talked about by the family, I understand she was very depressed.
We had a very sad suicide here in our town by a teenage boy, just so very very sad, the High school he attended handeled it very well, and the kids had councelling available to them, he to cut his own throat, it must have been a dreadful thing to find.
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I always think, "why wasnt anyone there for them?"
Truth is, they were...........but to sink to that level of depression makes it an illness that nobody (at a level head) will ever understand.
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When my ancestor committed suicide in 1894 the death cert says he was of an unsound mind. newspaper reports say that he had threatened to kill himself before. A neighbour said he was a bit strange but not enough to kill himself. Jesse Titshall had both his parents and his wife but he must have had severe depression. His son Richard, my great grandfather moved from Suffolk to South Essex in about 1904.
Jesse was a miller.
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My ancestor died thus - Killed himself by a pistol shot while temporarily insane under the influnce of drink.
Newspaper report here http://www.cultrans.com/carlisle-journal/may-01-1891/4773-suicide-with-a-revolver
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I have found out that several members of my family have committed suicide.
I have read the inquest and they do say of unsound mind or suffering temporay insanity.
I think it was just a way of justifying their actions in that on one in sound mind would commit such a desperate act.
But when you read a lot of the inquest you have to wounder if they where right especially for the ones that drowned. The way I read some of them they could just have slipped and fell in the water. Or one of my grandfathers cousins was said to have gut her throat with her right had using her fathers razor but my grandfather said she was lefthanded.
But on the topic of burials I think if you paid the church enough for the burial they would allow you to be buried in the church grounds.
John
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My ancestor died thus - Killed himself by a pistol shot while temporarily insane under the influnce of drink.
Newspaper report here http://www.cultrans.com/carlisle-journal/may-01-1891/4773-suicide-with-a-revolver
Geoff, those poor children. I take it you are descended from one of them? It must have affected them as they grew up, I know that previous generations were more stoic, but that's a pretty unforgettable experience
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But on the topic of burials I think if you paid the church enough for the burial they would allow you to be buried in the church grounds.
John
As posted before
An 1823 statute (Burial of Suicide Act 1823 (4 Geo. IV) legalized the burial of suicides in consecrated ground, but religious services were not permitted until 1882. In the year 1823 it was enacted that the body of a suicide should be buried privately between the hours of nine and twelve at night, with no religious ceremony. In 1882 this law was altered by the Internments (felo de se) Act, 1882. where every penalty was removed except that internment could not be solemnised by a burial service, and the body could now be committed to the earth at any time, and with such rites or prayers as those in charge of the funeral thought fit or were able to procure.
Stan
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Thanks for all these thoughts/information/personal experiences, etc to my original post. For some reason, my hotmail account isn't registering these replies!
Meles: yes, my g-grandfather's suicide is registered as having happened when he was 'of unsound mind'. I can imagine, certainly in the 20s when my forebear committed suicide, that widespread understanding of mental health issues was pretty poor. My own take is that the Victorian value of 'the stiff upper lip' was still holding sway, and depression (as a psycho/social phenomenon) was something that was frowned upon and given short shrift.
I received a copy of the 1922 newspaper report yesterday and, although the circumstances of my g-grandfather's death are pretty gruesome, there's not that much to really explain why he did it. But looking at the suicide all these years after the event, there are a few facts to take into account: my g-grandfather survived WW1. I haven't been able to find his service records but his wife states (with irony, I think) that he survived WW1 'with no injury'. I wonder though, what psychological affect the war might have had on him. There is some talk of him being depressed about business worries (he is recorded as being a 'dining rooms proprietor' - I guess this means he ran a cafe). Whatever, he got up on a Monday morning, went into the coalshed and cut his throat, apparently almost severing his head. According to his wife, there didn't seem to have been any warning.
(I have more to say, but Rootschat is playing up! It's really difficult to write my post as the message section keeps flicking up and down. I'll try again later!)
Clara X
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One thing I really don't know what to do: do I tell my mum? My grandfather, son of the cut-throat, has always been persona-non-grata in our family as he deserted my grandmother when my mum and her brother were quite young: he ended up in Australia and married bigamously. There are no photos/information about him that have been handed down and consequently, it's been really difficult to research this branch of the family.
My mum (aged 78), however, has always had this thing about her 'Welsh' background (ie the Davies family), and seems to have built some sort of celtic fantasy about it. I've spoken to my 81-year-old uncle about this suicide to find out whether he had any knowledge about it, and he hasn't: this is obviously an occurence that has been keep quiet well before my grandfather met my grandmother.
But, do I tell my mum? I've spoken to my stepfather, but have only got a non-commital reply. Should I trash my mum's Welsh fantasies?!
Clara ???
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I am still looking for the suicide of my grandmother's aunt, Mary Jane Clarke, who was still alive in the 1911 Census.
My grandmother said she committed suicide, but never managed to find this
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But, do I tell my mum? I've spoken to my stepfather, but have only got a non-commital reply. Should I trash my mum's Welsh fantasies?!
Clara ???
Clara, if it were my decision, I would say no, don't trash her fantasy, unless she ASKS - if the topic was kept hush hush, then in all probability, she knows nothing about it, so to what ends would you tell her? Just an opinion anyway :)
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I don't know how I've missed this thread until now, but there are many poignant and touching stories coming through. I would like to thank those who have shared their family 'skeletons'.
On Clara's question as to whether to tell Mum? I can only suggest that you are the best judge of that. Is your Mum interested in your research and does she like to share what she knows so that you can find out more about her family? If she does then I would say yes, but in a roundabout way, saying that you might have found something odd about his death, and does she know any more about him. The older generations are not easily shocked because that was their way of life and sad things happened.
The other question of suicide while being of unsound mind, meant that a normal burial and religious service could be undertaken, as the deceased was not held responsible for his/her actions and it was not regarded as being illegal or as a sin in the eyes of God.
Regards,
Colin
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Clara, I would tell her, as sooner or later the truth will come out and someone else will. Then she will only wonder what you knew and for how long. My grandmother killed herself in 1901, also with a razor, and though I knew there was a mystery I only discovered it in 1997. My late father, who was also a WW1 veteran and never talked about the war, had walked past the house where she killed herself every day on his way to and from work for well over 40 years, and had never mentioned the suicide to me or my brother, though when I told her it was obvious that my mother had known about it.
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I was in my teens when someone said to me quite casually "it was a terrible shock when... "
I hadn't known about the very public suicide in my family at all until then. My parents didn't want to tell us children and thought we would never find out.
I got a bit of a shock, but I think it was much harder for my father, being asked questions by his daughter and having to answer them, on a subject he never wanted to discuss.
I think it really is a case of distance lending detachment - a lot depends on how close your mother is/was to the family. Only you can really guess if this would hurt her or not, and also how robust or frail she is.
Yes, older people are more practical and pragmatic, but that doesn't mean they necessarily want to have everything brought out into the open. It's a really difficult decision - good luck.
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My Grandfather killed himself in 1932 when my mum was 2. It seems he was a bit depressed about being out of work but had a few drinks, my nana thought it best to leave him downstairs to sleep it off, when she came down in the morning he'd gassed himself. Result of inquest was suicide by coal gas poisoning due to unsound mind. My nana was left with 2 young children to bring up. I managed to find a newspaper report from the local paper which gives more details including how a police office gave artifical respiration for an hour but to no avail.
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What a sad subject.
Is it not also true that a verdict of "unsound mind" was not only kinder for the surviving relatives to live with, but also mean that the suicide was not legally responsible for his/her actions in which case if there was any kind of life insurance it would still be paid out to his/her survivors ?
Carole
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Carole, That is my understanding of the reason. I find it somewhat surprising that any provision like this was made, after all it would save the insurance companies money when they didn't pay out.
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I like to be generous and think that not all laws were made either to stop people from doing things/punishing them when they did/or extracting money from them by a myriad of taxes, and that some, such as allowing insurance policies to be paid out to widows and children were made out of kindness.
But I'm sure I'm wrong!
Carole
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Historically the goods of people found guilty of the 'crime' of suicide were forfeit to the crown, often leaving the survivors in poverty, however if the person committed suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed (non compos mentis)the survivors were not subject to this draconian penalty.
You can still buy 'cut throat razors' :) http://www.rootschat.com/links/08hr/
Stan
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Oh - that's interesting, and answers the question I asked a while ago.
meles
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Hi Clara,
I think it really depends on your mums attitude as to whether you tell her or not. If she is reluctant to talk about her past then i would let it be. I personally don`t think anything would be gained by telling her. If however she has been upfront and open about her families past and you think she will not get upset by such knowledge then go ahead.
Sarah
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Thanks for all the advice, and the extra info from Stan re: the issue of non compos mentis.
I'm still not sure whether to tell Mum - she has been very interested in her family history (she actually sparked me off a few years ago), but she's the sort of person who isn't too keen on hearing anything 'negative'.
I'll leave it for now, I think; I'll just tell everyone else in the family!
Clara ;)
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Clara, If you do that it seems like a sure way for your mother to find out by the back door. If you say anything tell her up front!
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Thanks for all the advice, and the extra info from Stan re: the issue of non compos mentis.
I'm still not sure whether to tell Mum - she has been very interested in her family history (she actually sparked me off a few years ago), but she's the sort of person who isn't too keen on hearing anything 'negative'.
I'll leave it for now, I think; I'll just tell everyone else in the family!
Clara ;)
Hi Clara,
If I may add a comment, my whole family looked at my uncle's suicide with shame. I think that it would have been better brought into the open. It is a terrible tragedy for any family to lose someone to suicide.
Surely it is better to have an open attitude to these things. People must be so desperate to do that sort of thing, they are to be pitied not reviled or hidden away.
There is nothing whatever to be ashamed of. If your mother knows that you are doing family history, she must realise that you will find out what she already 'knows'. Where is the shame? It is part of the FH whatever happens. Treated as unemotional fact, I would be inclined to tell her what you know,
Rabbit B
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I'd tell her too.
It would be just dreadful if she heard from someone else in the family:(
Annie
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Clara, have just re-read all your posts, as it seems most people are thinking you SHOULD tell your mother. I see that you have spoken about this suicide with your mother's brother...and he knows nothing about it...why don't you ask him whether it be appropriate to tell your mother?
I do agree, that if you are telling other members of the family, it may well backfire, and find a way back to your mother, leaving her to wonder why you didn't come to her about it!
My mother didn't know her grandfather had committed suicide, but her older sister did (that was how I found out). My mother was just 4 years old, when he died. My mother is 65, and had no fond memories, or any "fantasy" of her grand-father, in fact, her father had actually been disowned by the grandfather, so I actually did tell my mother, and she wasn't fazed.
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As my mother has helped me so much with family information, I never hesitate in telling her whatever I find, whether it be good or bad and I know she prefers it that way. I did ask, when I first started out, that should I find anything she might not like, would she still want to know and she agreed she would.
Some time ago, mum told me of a double family tragedy, when an older cousin of hers was murdered by her husband, who then committed suicide himself. Mum can remember how afraid she felt at the time of the tragedy, mainly as her parents and the rest of the family would not discuss it in front of either her or her siblings, although by then they were all teenagers. She had many a sleepless night back then 'worrying' over the horror of what had happened to her cousin.
I recently received the death certificates and mum was relieved to finally hear the correct details, which ended some of the 'imagined' ones from all those years ago. Now I want to try and locate the newspaper reports, in the hope it might help us understand what led to the terrible event, which sadly happened within the same quarter as their marriage was registered.
justmej
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I must admit that I was a little hurt that my brother and I hadn't been told when we were old enough to appreciate the facts, but thinking on, in the late Victorian era onwards a minimum of information about any scandal and many things that were not scandalous were just not talked about!
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Sorry, I've been away for a few days, but thanks for the further thoughts/advice. As for my earlier post about telling the rest of the family, I'm afraid I was being a bit glib! Actually, I have very few members of the family to tell.
My mum is visiting for a week fairly soon. I will broach the subject in a roundabout way with her. I appreciate everything that's been said about it being better to tell her; I agree.
Best wishes and thanks!
Clara :)
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I have been reading an interesting article regarding suicide. Sorry it is a bit upsetting for those who have lost family this way.
In the 16th century, termed "felo de se", a felony against oneself. By committing suicide the person was considered to have abandoned all hope of salvation. And declared as self-murder. The victim was not allowed a funeral or burial in consecrated ground..
Until 1823 the body of the suicide victim would be pierced through the heart with a wooden stake. (I guess that is where Vampire stories get that little detail) then the body would be buried at a crossroad.
By 1882 the body of a suicide victim would be buried at night. (In Scotland between 16th and 18th century the poor person was dragged through the streets and hung for public view) Suicide cases were a criminal act until the Suicide act became law in 1961 (England and Wales).
Thank goodness there is help out there now for people with depression.
Kind Regards
Suzy W
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Quite a few months later, just updating... I told my mum about the suicide of her grandfather.
I asked her initially if she wanted to know something rather unpleasant/unhappy about her paternal forebears. On this Davies side of the family, my mum knows literally nothing; her father was pretty absent when she was young, and then disappeared off to Australia, apparently marrying bigamously while he was there (he then died of a heart attack, after fighting a forest fire in Victoria, aged 56). But mum wanted to know!
My mum's grandfather cut his own throat with a cut-throat razor. Apparently, he almost severed his head from his neck. I can't for a minute imagine how desperate this man must have felt at the time. But he'd survived WW1. Perhaps this says it all in terms of how he might have felt at that time.
Anyway, I told my mum. She was actually pleased to hear about this branch of her family, which she knew nothing about. Even the gruesome suicide...
clarabelle X
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Personally I believe it is always best to tell these things out right. They almost always leak out causing further distress.
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Thank you, redroger, I totally agree; although I did 'probe' a bit before I told my mum the gory details. X
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My gt x 3grandfather committed suicide in 1884, cutting his throat with a razor, though the death cert said that he had lived for 20 days afterwards :(
He gave his son a cut-throat razor to use many years previously and the son used it to cut his fiancee's throat. Son was found insane and spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor. Not sure if there was a streak of insanity in the family already, or whether my gt x 3 grandfather was depressed following the death of his wife, as I have yet to see a report of the inquest.
Just to add a hint of spookiness - the house where the fiancee was killed was a block of cottages which has been converted into a house. During the conversion a cut-throat razor was found plastered into the wall.
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My ggrandfather committed suicide in 1894 with strychnine.
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My gt x 3 grandfather committed suicide in 1884. His death cert said he'd cut his own throat but lived for 20 days afterwards. :( He used a cut-throat razor. He is buried with a headstone in his wife's grave.
His son (my gt x 3 uncle) used a cut-throat razor given to him by his father to kill his fiancee in 1862 and spent his life in Broadmoor.
Just to add a bit of spookiness, the place where the fiancee was killed was a block of cottages which has been converted into one house. During the conversion a cut-throat razor was found plastered into the wall.
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Interestingly I am one step forward an my possible suicide
My grandfather's aunt Mary Jane Clarke was said by my grandmother to have hanged herself
I could never find anything.
Now the publication of the national probate calendar has revealed that Mary Jane from Oundle died in 1920 in her sister's Baker's shop in Egham.
I still need to find newspaper reports to see if this was suicide.
There is a GRO index for the death, but I reckon to wait on finding newspaper report
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A really scary one Jeuel.Hope bricking the razor up in the wall broke the spell.
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Thank you for this fascinating thread, and my condolences to those who have lost ancestors and closer family members to suicide.
I'm a writer working on a book involving a character who (was believed to have) committed suicide in the 1927 and I found this thread because I was researching suicide in the 1920's.
One interesting fact I learned from a very helpful Episcopal church secretary is that if my character died after 1928 she would have been able to have a normal church burial. (I didn't want that, so I ended up changing the date of her death from 1929 to 1927.) I assume they changed some church rules about that time, though I haven't located the exact info on it yet. Hopefully that info is helpful for someone.
I very much appreciate having found the term "unsound mind," here. The character was suffering from tuberculosis (pretty much fatal in those days) and depression because of that, but I figured there was a better word to use than "depression."
Right now I'm trying to write the news clipping of the character's death. For those of you who have actual newspaper clippings and/or death certificates from this era, I hope you don't mind my asking a few questions:
1) Would the suicide's name absolutely be identified in the newspaper? The girl is 18, and the daughter of a wealthy local. Is it possible that the newspaper would say something like, "the daughter of a wealthy local shipping magnate" and later say "the family has requested that their names be withheld pending notification of relatives" or would it just print her name regardless? Would it print her address, or merely the town she lived in? (The local paper covers several towns.)
2) How long would the coroner's inquest generally take? And how long from then to get to the papers? I'm sure that partly depends on death method. In this case the girl was in the bath, allegedly wetted her towels so that she could send her nurse for more, and while the nurse was gone, drowned herself.
I hope it doesn't seem callous of me to post these questions in an ancestry forum. History is an important thing to me and I wish to honor the many folks who died of tuberculosis by keeping as much of possible of my story accurate to the period and the disease.
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Hi Lionrhod,
I have a fairly strong possibility of an ancestor on my side who committed suicide. It was a bit earlier than your character's time (1890) and it is in Ireland, so I don't know if this will be of any use to you.
The coroner's inquest was reported in the paper. Not only was his full name printed but his mother's name and the name of the street she lived in (although it doesn't give his address, the impression you get is that he lived with his mum).
It appears that the inquest happened very quickly after the event and was reported within a few days.
Pet50ite
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Everything had to be done as quickly as possible in that pre refrigeration era. Not pleasant to know I realise.
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I don't have any real knowledge of what may or may not be included in newspaper announcements, but the phrase "the family has requested that their names be withheld pending notification of relatives" sounds a bit modern to me.
I would have thought that anyone who took their own life in that era would not have had a newspaper announcement, or if they did, the cause of death may be omitted.
These thoughts are merely coming from the point of view of someone who may read your book rather than any real knowledge of the subject in that era.
Inquest would have given the facts of the case but I am not sure the family would pay for it to be published in an newspaper.
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I looked in the newspaper collection on FindMyPast (using "suicide" and various place names as search terms , and picking the 1920s as an era): quite a few of the reports give full details of the suicide's name, personal circumstances and an exact address.
As Coroners' Courts are public courts, there would be no bar on the press attending, except in very exceptional circumstances (such as, I would imagine, the suicide of a member of the Royal Family): the papers would report this as a news item and the family would have little, if any, say in what was printed. Certainly the family wouldn't pay the paper anything for this: the most the family would pay would be for an obituary or funeral announcement.
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In my grandmother's case it was the full harrowing description of the event.
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Thank you everyone! You've helped me make my story far more realistic. (I'd tried using newspapers.com to do some research, but they wanted an up front credit card and that WASN'T realistic for me ;) ) Hugs and kisses to you all!
The point about getting the inquest done fast because of the lack of refrigeration was also brilliant. Duh! Having lived in locations without electric, I should have thought of this. And of course nowadays we have so much more forensic info - DNA etc, that it makes sense it would take longer.
Thanks to all of you, I now have the victim's name and town listed (not address, since she's a fictional character living in a fictional house and I don't want to just plant a house somewhere that doesn't actually exist) recorded, as well as the fact that she's the daughter of a prominent shipping magnate (his name included) as well as the nurse who discovered the body (and is actually the murderer--it wasn't really a suicide) and her story about "what happened."
This is a fascinating forum, and as genealogy and history are some of my passions, I hope I can contribute and give back.
Here's what I have--please feel free to comment and add suggestions.
Poughkeepsie Journal, April 20, 1927
Local Girl Commits Suicide in Tub
The coroner was summoned to the home of prominent shipping magnate Jonas Tottenham of Hyde Park, on Sunday, April 17. The eldest daughter of the family, Rachel Agnes Tottenham age 18, had apparently drowned herself in the bathtub while her family was away at church.
The girl had been suffring from consumption and it is believed that this caused her to be of unsound mind, leading her to take her life.
The girl's nurse, one Clarice Wallace, stated that as she was helping her charge bathe, the towels had fallen into the tub and she was sent for more. Miss Wallace further said that she believed Miss Tottenham had deliberately soaked the towels so that she would have time to effect her demise.