BETTY MAY GOLDING - TIGER WOMAN

 

NOTES ON THE EARLY YEARS OF

BETTY MAY – TIGER WOMAN

BY

BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

‘My parents were nothing to brag about; they were shiftless and now and then they drank. It was a handicap for me that was balanced on the other side of the ledger, by a real asset. I was beautiful.’ (1)

 

Betty May’s volume of autobiography ‘Tiger Woman’ (1929) is an interesting read which focuses on the sensational aspects of her life but fails to give specific details of her family during the early years of her upbringing; in this fact the book is quite useless to historians who live and breathe data – names, dates and historical facts. Little is given away in the book, even John Symonds sheds no new light upon her, but she does give some tantalising clues as to their identities and being fond of solving puzzles I thought it would be interesting to dig through some skeletal remains and put some skin back on their bones! The first clue I had was on the marriage certificate for Betty’s marriage to Frederick Charles ‘Raoul’ Loveday on 3^rd September 1922 in Oxford where she states her father’s name and profession as: ‘George Golding (deceased), Artist’; well, as for his occupation she is half right for from reading her book ‘Tiger Woman’ he seems rarely to be sober! In fact, she paints a bleak picture of her home life in Tidal Basin, Limehouse, saying that her father left the family, wife and four children, to fend for themselves – ‘even the law failed to extract from him any contribution towards our support, although I believe he used to be sent to prison at intervals for refusing to pay anything towards his family’s upkeep.’ (2) She also mentions that her grandfather (George’s father) was a ‘Police Inspector’ and so I was able to identify George and his father from the census returns.

 

ROBERT GEORGE GOLDING (1847-1917)

 

Betty May’s paternal grandfather, Robert George Golding was born in 1847 in Purton, Wiltshire; the son of Robert Golding (1815-1912) and Jane Ricks (1817-1906) a dressmaker who were married in Cricklade in 1845, Robert had a sister named Elizabeth Mary Golding, born 1851 in Cricklade and two brothers both born in Cricklade, Mortimer Golding, born 1854 and John Golding, born 1856. Robert George Golding married Maria Keep, born in 1845, Newbury village, Woolhampton, Berkshire, on 15^th April 1867 at St Pancras, London (3); Maria was the daughter of John Keep, (1806-1874) born in Oxfordshire and Ellen Robbins, (1805-1888) born in Berkshire who were married at St Peters, Woolhampton on 22^nd June 1833; Maria’s siblings, all born Woolhampton, are: James Charles Keep (1838-1898), Henry Keep (1840) who married Charlotte Brunsdon in 1860; William Keep (1841-1898) who married Mary Jeffries in 1865 and John Keep (1844) who married Esther Jane Laver in 1877 and had at least nine children.

 

JACK THE RIPPER

 

Betty fails to mention in her book Tiger Woman the connection to Jack the Ripper! There was real fear in Whitechapel during 1888 after the ‘Ripper murders’ became known and just five weeks after the slaying of Mary Kelly on 9^th November 1888, on Thursday 20^th December, Betty May’s grandfather, Police Sergeant Robert George Golding (26K) is on his beat with Constable Thomas Costello (194K) when at 4.14 a.m. Robert discovers the dead body of a woman in the yard between 184 and 186 Poplar High Street, called Clarke’s Yard, a builders- merchant; it seemed at first sight to Sergeant Golding that the Ripper had struck again. There were no visible marks to suggest murder, her throat had not been cut and there were no obvious wounds. The woman, it turns out was a well-known local Limehouse prostitute known as ‘Drunken Lizzie’; her name was Rose Mylett, born in 1859 who had been seen on Wednesday evening just before 8 p.m. in Poplar High Street near Clarke’s Yard talking to two men and later, on Thursday morning around 2.30 a.m. quite drunk, outside the George on Commercial Road with two men – it was the last time she was seen alive! The inquest was held the next day on Friday 21^st December by Wynne Baxter at Poplar Town Hall (and again on 2^nd and 9^th January 1889) and although a string mark was found around her neck suggesting strangulation it was not contributed to be a Ripper murder and Robert Golding came to the same conclusion.

Robert George Golding joined the Police Force on 29^th January 1866 – warrant number: 46955, and probably served at either Limehouse or Poplar Station. It can be seen in the 1881 census that Robert is an ‘Inspector of Police’ yet in the incident described above he is a Sergeant – Golding was promoted to Inspector in Y Division on 14^th April 1880 but was reduced in rank to Sergeant on 4^th November 1881 for ‘neglecting to properly visit the men on night duty, telling deliberate falsehoods respecting same, and returning to Station under the influence of drink’. That day, 4^th November, he was transferred from Y Division to K Division (Police Number 26K) as a Sergeant and instructed to report to Bow Police Station the following day, 5^th November 1881 where he would then be informed where he would be serving, either Limehouse or Poplar. He retired from the Police on 25^th April 1890.

 

Robert and Maria Golding had six children, all born at St Pancras: Maria Louisa Golding, born 9^th April 1868 (Christened 28^th June 1868) (4), Ellen Golding born 1870, George Golding, Betty May’s father, born 1871 (5), Florence Golding, born 1872 (Christened 12^th May 1872) [Florence married James Malcolm, born 1873 in Canning Town, London, on 4^th April 1896 in Whitechapel, they had a son named James Mortimer Malcolm, born 1897, Canning Town, vol 4a p 131], Henry Golding born 1874 [Henry married Eliza James at St Mary’s Church, Whitechapel on 23^rd February 1896; Eliza died in Lambeth aged 24 in 1899 (volume 1d page 212), Henry married again as a widow on 30^th May 1903 in West Ham, Essex to Mary Stalham, (Marriage April-June 1903, West Ham, volume 4a, page 286)] (6) and Edward Golding born 1876 [Edward married Elizabeth Tuck at St Mary’s Church, Whitechapel on 10^th January 1897 and they had five children: Florence Elizabeth Golding (Poplar 1897, vol 1c p 654) she died in Poplar 1897; James Edward Golding (West Ham 1898, vol 4a p 167)James possibly died in Poplar in 1902; Harold Clement Golding (West Ham 1901, vol 4a p 158), Harold died in Poplar in 1902 (vol 1c p 363); Albert Edward Golding, Poplar 1903, vol 1c p 628; Vera Golding (West Ham 1905, vol 4a p 292), Christened 12^th March 1905].

In the 1871 census the family are living in Gray’s Inn Lane, St Pancras; Robert George Golding is 25 and a ‘Police Constable’, Maria 25 and probably carrying their son, George; Maria Louisa is 3 and Ellen is 1; with the family are Robert’s brother, John Golding, 15 an ‘errand boy’ and Robert’s sister Elizabeth, 20 who is a ‘domestic servant’ (7). Ten years later in the 1881 census the family are now living in Upper Gordon Road, Enfield, Middlesex – Robert George Golding is 34 and an ‘Inspector of Police’, Maria 35, Maria Louisa is12, Ellen 11, George 9, Florence 8, Henry 6 and Edward 5; living with the family is Maria’s mother, Ellen Keep who is a widow of 78, and under occupation it states ‘Anuitant’ (8).

The 1891 census (9) is very important because it contains another clue to Betty May’s parentage. The Goldings are now living at number 1 Brunswick Street, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, London and Robert George Golding is 44 and a ‘Retired Police Sergeant’; Maria is 46, Maria Louisa is 22, single and living on her ‘own means’; Betty May’s father, George is 19 and single and works as an ‘Iron Plater’ on the ships; Florence is 18 and single, working as a ‘Packer in Confectionary’; Henry is 16 and single working as a ‘Railway Van Guard’ and Edward is 15 working as a ‘Labourer in Shipyard’. Also boarding with the Goldings is Ellen James, a 19 year old single woman born in London in 1872 who also works as a ‘Packer in Confectionary’ and was probably befriended by Florence at the workplace and the family took her in as a boarder. In her book Tiger Woman, Betty May states that her mother ‘had to work twelve hours a day at a chocolate factory’ (10) With this in mind I looked for a marriage between George and Ellen and found a George Golding marrying an Ellen James in the summer of 1891 in Poplar, London (11).

 

ELLEN JAMES

 

In finding Ellen James’s birth, she states on the 1891 census that she is born in London in 1872 so I checked a year either side (1871-73) for Ellen James born in the London area, with the mother’s maiden name I then found the parent’s marriages and located them on the census to 1) make sure I had the correct Ellen James and 2) to see if either parent had French lineage which I did not find (12). It is worth noting that many of the people on the census returns were illiterate, many of them not knowing the correct year of birth, place of birth or even their own name so one has to rely a little on intuition sometimes and errors can occur!

Ellen James was born in 1872 in Poplar (volume 1c page 729) [Mother’s maiden name ‘Abbott’]; she is the first born of six children to Sarah Abbott (born Stepney 1852) and John James who were married in Bethnal Green in 1870 (volume 1c page 604), the other children are: Eliza James born Poplar 1873 (volume 1c page 679), John Henry James born Poplar 1875 (volume 1c page 706) [he died in 1875], Henry James born Poplar 1877 (volume 1c page 745) [died Poplar 1877], Mary Ann James born Poplar 1879 (volume 1c page 689) and John James born Poplar 1880 (volume 1c page 667). I have found them in the census for 1881 living in Gaselee Street, Poplar, John James is 37, a labourer born in Devon, Sarah is 30, Ellen 10, Eliza 8, Mary A. 3 and John not yet one year old (RG11 folio 510 page 30); in the previous census of 1871 John, a 27 year old labourer and his 19 year old wife, Sarah, are lodging in Poplar at the home of Jessie Emms, a 42 year old labourer born in Poplar and his wife Mary and six children (Affiliate Image Identifier: GBC/1871/0585/0200).

Betty May says in Tiger Woman that her mother was ‘half French’ (p. 14) but I can find no evidence of that.

Betty May also says that she is one of four children born to George and her mother, and Betty was born Bessie Golding in West Ham in 1894 (13); the other three children born to George and Ellen Golding are: Ellen Golding, born 1891 in West Ham (volume 4a page 65), George Golding born 1892 in Poplar (volume 1c page 650) and Maria Golding, born 1896 in West Ham (volume 4a page 156). She paints a terrible picture of her squalid conditions as a child and her father, George seems to be a very unpleasant man - ‘if he saw a cat in the street he liked to pick it up by its tail and crash out its brains against a wall’ (14).

In time, even her mother, who had shown great strength in bringing up the children could not handle Betty and her brother so they were sent to her fathers ‘with a note explaining that henceforward we should have to live with him.’ (15) Conditions at her father’s were even worse and there was no parental love and by all accounts he seems to be living off immoral earnings and the place the children are living in is a brothel. One day, a police man comes to the home looking for George Golding – the police man turns out to be Robert George Golding, Betty’s grandfather, come to arrest George Golding which indeed he succeeds in doing and taken to the police station; the children, Bessie and her brother George are also taken with them. This must have occurred around 1899 or 1900 presumably as Betty is still quite young and she remembers being in the magistrate court and hearing the magistrate say, “And the little girl can go to her grandmother’s”’ (16, meaning her paternal grandmother, Maria. But shortly afterwards she is sent to live with ‘an aunt and her husband, with whom I lived on a barge for the next few years.’ (17. The next we hear about George Golding, according to Betty May is that he was ‘sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, after which he and his twin brother went out to Canada, and joined the mounted police, where they gained credit for their bravery. When the war broke out my father joined the first Canadian contingent that came over here. He never got to the front, however, where he would probably have done well, but catching a chill while in training on Salisbury Plain he died of double pneumonia.’ (18 I looked up the death of George Golding and found he had indeed died in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1915 aged 43 (19.

 

In searching for Betty May and the next chapter of her life on a barge I turned to the 1901 census and found a Bessie May, aged 6, born in Poplar living in Northfleet, Kent, with her Uncle, William Walker, 46, born in Gravesend, Kent in 1855 (Christened 8^th August 1855) who works as a ‘Waterman’ and her Aunt, Eliza Walker, 45, born in Limehouse, London in 1855 (20 Looking at the previous census for 1891 the Walkers were still in Northfleet, Kent, in Factory Road, and William is 36 and a ‘Bargeman’; Eliza is 35 and they have an 8 year old adopted child with them named Eliza Philpot (born 1883 in Middlesex) (21; the child ‘Eliza’ was born Eliza Emily Philpot in Poplar in 1882 (volume 1c page 722) and her mother’s maiden name is ‘Abbott’ – the little girl is actually the child of Betty May’s great Aunt Fanny, Ellen James’s (later Golding) Aunt Fanny Abbott (born Stepney 1854, volume 1c page 586); she married Stephen Walter Philpot, a ‘coppersmith labourer’ in Stepney in 1876 (volume 1c page 873) and they had two children: Eliza Emily and Charles Philpot, born 1885 in Poplar (volume 1c page 645); in the 1881 census they are living in Naval Row, Poplar, Stephen is a labourer and Fanny is 27 and with them are two children: Lily aged 3 and William, not yet one year old, both born in Poplar (RG11 folio 509 page 122). Unfortunately Fanny Philpot nee Abbott died in 1887 aged 33 in Poplar (volume 1c page 405) and in the next census of 1891, Stephen, a widow aged 38 is still living in Naval Row, Poplar with his daughter Lily E. aged 13 and two sons William H. aged 10 and Charles aged 6 (RG12 folio 334 page 10). The child Eliza was adopted by the Walkers [Fanny’s husband Stephen married a second time to Elizabeth Dowley in Poplar in 1891 and the son Charles is with them in the 1891 census]. The connection to the Walkers is that Eliza Walker is Fanny’s younger sister, Eliza Abbott born Stepney 1855 (volume 1c page 524) who married William Walker in Mile End in 1882 (volume 1c page 994) and they seem to have had no children of their own, so Eliza Philpot is actually Eliza Walker’s niece, and Eliza Walker would have been Bessie Golding’s great Aunt, not her Aunt. The 1911 census (still in Northfleet) tells us that William is 56 and a ‘Bargeman’ in the Industry of Cement and Eliza is 55 (22.

As for Robert George Golding and his wife Maria, it can be seen from the 1901 census that they are living in St Stephens, Upton Park, East Ham, Essex, Robert is 54 and his occupation since retiring from the Police is ‘Timekeeper at Warehouse’; Maria is 56 and their son, Henry Golding, is 26 and a ‘Labourer in Shipyard’. Living with them is Robert’s granddaughter, Gertrude Golding, 4 years old, born in Battersea, London, who is Henry Golding’s daughter whom he is caring for, his wife Eliza died two years previously [Henry will marry again in two years, 1903 to Mary Stalham] (23 Ten years later in the 1911 census Robert, 64, a ‘Police Pensioner’ and his wife, Maria, 66, are living in Tilehurst, Bradfield, Berkshire. (24

Robert George Golding died on 23^rd February 1917 in Reading, Berkshire, aged 70 (25; his wife, Maria Golding nee Keep, died aged 92 in Reading during the summer of 1937 (26

I have not concerned myself with Betty May’s time in Somerset and have only touched upon so many lives that she would have encountered as a child. I am confident as to her paternal lineage but there is that element of doubt as to her mother’s line, purely on Betty’s claims to her being half French but time may prove me wrong and that damn ‘Abbott’ may turn out to be a ‘Philpot’ after all!

 

 

NOTES:

 

1. ‘The Angel Child who “saw Hell” and came back’. By W. B. Seabrook. The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah. 19^th August 1928.
2. Tiger Woman – My Story by Betty May. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 1929. All quotations taken from the 2014 edition by Duckworth Overlook. London. Quotation p. 13.
3. Marriage St Pancras, April-June 1867, volume 1b, page 25.
4. Maria Louisa Golding married Arthur Johns (born 1864, Limehouse) in 1894 – they had 5 children: Louisa Johns born 1900 (Christened 2^nd October 1900), Bessie Florence Johns born 23^rd October 1894 (dying 29^th September 1978 in Vancouver), she married Hamilton James Wardlow; John William Johns (1895-1916), Able Seaman (service number J/14548) HMS ‘Defence’ Royal Navy, died 31^st May 1916 aged 20; Florence Johns born 1895 and Ivy Johns 1907 (Christened 28^th July 1907) – 1970.
5. George Golding Birth 1871 St Pancras (Mother’s maiden name: Keep), volume 1b page 76.
6. Henry and Eliza Golding had two children both born in Lambeth: Gertrude Louise Golding born 1896 (volume 1d page 355) and Henry Golding born 1898 (volume 1d page 396); Henry and his second wife had six children: Hilda Mary Golding born 1904 West Ham (volume 4a page 173), Lydia Golding born 1906 West Ham (volume 4a page 316), William Robert Golding born 1908 Whitechapel (volume 1c page 243), Florence Golding born 1910 Whitechapel (volume 1c page 260), Harry Golding born 1917 Lambeth (volume 1d page 514) and Ivy Golding born 1918 Lambeth (volume 1d page 394).
7. 1871 Census for England and Wales. Affiliate Identifier GBC/1871/0218/0108.
8. 1881 Census for England and Wales. RG11, folio 1393/18, page 29.
9. 1891 Census for England and Wales. RG12, folio 334/11, page 15 and 16.
10. Tiger Woman. p. 14.
11. Marriage April-June 1891, Poplar, London, volume 1c, page 912.
12. Ellen James – a) born 1871 Bethnal Green, mother’s maiden name: Harrow. Parents: Anna Harrow and Henry James married Bethnal Green 1865 (1c 604), b) born 1872 Poplar, mother’s maiden name: Abbott. Parents: Sarah Abbott and John James married Bethnal Green 1870 (1c 604), c) born 1872 Lewisham, mother’s maiden name: Adshead. Parents: Hannah Elizabeth Adshead and John James married St Georges’s Square 1867 (1d 191), d) born 1873 Shoreditch, mother’s maiden name: Philpot. Parents: Clara Lydia Philpot and Frederick James married Bethnal Green 1878 (1c 780). Although the ‘Philpot’ connection seemed likely due to the little girl, Eliza Philpot on the 1891 census, I dismissed it after looking at census returns for the family.
13. Bessie Golding, birth October-December 1894, West Ham, Essex, volume 4a, page 114. Mother’s maiden name: James.
14. Tiger Woman. p. 21.
15. ibid. p. 19.
16. ibid. p. 24
17. ibid. p. 24.
18. ibid. p. 25.
19. George Golding, death January-March 1915, Salisbury, Wiltshire, volume 5a, page 288.
20. 1901 Census for England and Wales. Schedule Type 188, page 32. In the 1861 census William Walker is 6 years old living in Stable Row, North Aylesford, Kent with his family: father, James Walker, 34 a ‘Lighterman’ born in Northfleet; mother, Ann, 32 born in Colchester, and siblings, Mary A. 8, Sarah S. 4 and Frances C. 2 (1861 Census, RG09, folio 472/13, page 18). In the 1881 census the Walkers are living at The Shore, North Aylesford, Northfleet, Kent – Ann, 51 (widow), William 26, single and a ‘Lighterman’, Hannah N. 18, James Chas 16 a ‘Labourer in Chalk Works’, Esther Amelia 13, Charlotte 10 and Clara F. Ann’s 3 year old grand daughter (1881 census,  RG11, folio 874/14, page 21)
21. 1891 Census for England and Wales. RG12, folio 649/84, page 23.
22. 1911 Census for England and Wales. RG14, folio 495, page 1.
23. 1901 Census for England and Wales. Schedule Type 256, page 39.
24. 1911 Census for England and Wales. RG14, folio 263, page 1.
25. Robert George Golding, death January-March 1917, Reading, Berkshire, volume 20, page 585.
26. Mary Golding, death April-June 1937, Reading, Berkshire, volume 2c, page 351.