Yorkshire, Kirby Wiske - Fire tragedy
"In memory of Fanny Isabel the dearly loved wife of Francis Arthur Edward Samuelson of Breckenbrough Hall in this parish, and daughter of William Merrit Wright of St John, New Brunswick, Canada; Born June 16th 1857; Died July 17th 1897" flic.kr/p/8JJe79
- memorial by Sir George James Frampton, erected by her grieving husband
She sits, perhaps with her eldest daughter Gertrude Evelyn Frances aged 8 and the child she was expecting who died with her. She also left behind Francis Henry Bernard aged 7 and 2 younger children, Phyllis Mary and Muriel Gertrude.
She died 21 days after her long hair and upper body were burned whilst having her hair washed with petroleum hair wash in a hair salon. Heavily pregnant at the time her baby did not survive. flic.kr/p/8JJe7b
Fanny was daughter of William Merrit Wright 1874 of New Brunswick, Canada.. & Amelia Allan Coster
She m 1888 Francis Arthur Edward Samuelson 1861-1946 son of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, 1st Baronet (one of Teesside's wealthiest ironmasters) and Caroline Blundell
Children
1. Gertrude Evelyn Frances 1889-1951
2. Francis Henry Bernard 1890-1981 m Margaret Kendall Barnes
3. Phyllis Mary b 1891 m Edward Hamilton son of Leander Hamilton McCormick and Constance Plummer
4. Muriel Gertrude 1893 -1977
They lived at Sockburn Hall near Darlington while Breckenbrough Hall nearby was built for them for £40,000 (£5m today) moving there in 1897. Getting ready for a house warming party, Fanny travelled to London to have her hair tended at Emile et Cie, Parfumeurs of Conduit Street , overlooking Hyde Park.
Hairdresser Emile Kopf warned her that it was a very hot day, but she insisted that she wanted the Paris petroleum wash “to keep her waist-length hair wavy longer”. Then, outside the salon, his partner, Emile Fuchs heard a “boom”. He rushed in and found Fanny engulfed in flames to the waist, and Kopf a little singed. They rolled her in dressing gowns as she screamed at her friend: “My God, I am in awful agony. What can you do to put me out of my misery?” She talked wildly about her children and her husband, and advised the witness never to have her head washed with petroleum.
Fanny was taken to her father-in-law’s house in Westminster where she died, having suffered greatly, three weeks later.
The inquest failed to explain what had caused the petroleum wash to ignite – the sun, the curling tongs, the stove, the rings on Emile’s fingers – although the Samuelson family felt the hairdresser’s celluloid comb was also somehow implicated.
Kopf had gas-burning stoves in the salon, which heated curling tongs, but he extinguished them before he applied the wash.
Her body was brought by train to Thirsk Junction for burial at Kirby Wiske. “It was the largest funeral that ever took place in the village,” reported the Darlington & Stockton Times
Her monument's latin inscription says that like Absalom a Biblical figure whose luxuriant locks dragged him out of his saddle to his death, , she was the victim of a cruel accident caused by her own beauty.
The latin inscription says "Her hair set on fire by an evil fate, she died after suffering for 21 days throughout unspeakable pain with no less determination than that of brave men who have fallen in battle.
O lovable wife, loyal sister, dutiful daughter and the mother most sweet of three little daughters and one boy and of another who did not survive his mother’s death, poor little unfortunate.
Never was she a friend more earnest than during those final agonies and tortured was the death that carried her off.”
It ends with 2 words beneath her bare toe: “Manet Amor” – love remains.
www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/17368257.lookin...
- Kirby Wiske church, Yorkshire
Yorkshire, Kirby Wiske - Fire tragedy
"In memory of Fanny Isabel the dearly loved wife of Francis Arthur Edward Samuelson of Breckenbrough Hall in this parish, and daughter of William Merrit Wright of St John, New Brunswick, Canada; Born June 16th 1857; Died July 17th 1897" flic.kr/p/8JJe79
- memorial by Sir George James Frampton, erected by her grieving husband
She sits, perhaps with her eldest daughter Gertrude Evelyn Frances aged 8 and the child she was expecting who died with her. She also left behind Francis Henry Bernard aged 7 and 2 younger children, Phyllis Mary and Muriel Gertrude.
She died 21 days after her long hair and upper body were burned whilst having her hair washed with petroleum hair wash in a hair salon. Heavily pregnant at the time her baby did not survive. flic.kr/p/8JJe7b
Fanny was daughter of William Merrit Wright 1874 of New Brunswick, Canada.. & Amelia Allan Coster
She m 1888 Francis Arthur Edward Samuelson 1861-1946 son of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, 1st Baronet (one of Teesside's wealthiest ironmasters) and Caroline Blundell
Children
1. Gertrude Evelyn Frances 1889-1951
2. Francis Henry Bernard 1890-1981 m Margaret Kendall Barnes
3. Phyllis Mary b 1891 m Edward Hamilton son of Leander Hamilton McCormick and Constance Plummer
4. Muriel Gertrude 1893 -1977
They lived at Sockburn Hall near Darlington while Breckenbrough Hall nearby was built for them for £40,000 (£5m today) moving there in 1897. Getting ready for a house warming party, Fanny travelled to London to have her hair tended at Emile et Cie, Parfumeurs of Conduit Street , overlooking Hyde Park.
Hairdresser Emile Kopf warned her that it was a very hot day, but she insisted that she wanted the Paris petroleum wash “to keep her waist-length hair wavy longer”. Then, outside the salon, his partner, Emile Fuchs heard a “boom”. He rushed in and found Fanny engulfed in flames to the waist, and Kopf a little singed. They rolled her in dressing gowns as she screamed at her friend: “My God, I am in awful agony. What can you do to put me out of my misery?” She talked wildly about her children and her husband, and advised the witness never to have her head washed with petroleum.
Fanny was taken to her father-in-law’s house in Westminster where she died, having suffered greatly, three weeks later.
The inquest failed to explain what had caused the petroleum wash to ignite – the sun, the curling tongs, the stove, the rings on Emile’s fingers – although the Samuelson family felt the hairdresser’s celluloid comb was also somehow implicated.
Kopf had gas-burning stoves in the salon, which heated curling tongs, but he extinguished them before he applied the wash.
Her body was brought by train to Thirsk Junction for burial at Kirby Wiske. “It was the largest funeral that ever took place in the village,” reported the Darlington & Stockton Times
Her monument's latin inscription says that like Absalom a Biblical figure whose luxuriant locks dragged him out of his saddle to his death, , she was the victim of a cruel accident caused by her own beauty.
The latin inscription says "Her hair set on fire by an evil fate, she died after suffering for 21 days throughout unspeakable pain with no less determination than that of brave men who have fallen in battle.
O lovable wife, loyal sister, dutiful daughter and the mother most sweet of three little daughters and one boy and of another who did not survive his mother’s death, poor little unfortunate.
Never was she a friend more earnest than during those final agonies and tortured was the death that carried her off.”
It ends with 2 words beneath her bare toe: “Manet Amor” – love remains.
www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/17368257.lookin...
- Kirby Wiske church, Yorkshire