Edith and Freddy in the dock at the
Old Bailey © René Weis

VERBATIM TRIAL TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 1922

The verbatim transcript of the trial, from the official court shorthand, is now up on the website. The source is the unpublished Home Office file HO 144 /  2685 in the National Archives in Kew. Unlike the authorised published account of the trial, Notable British Trials (1923) ( NOTABLE BRITISH TRIALS 1923 ) the transcript preserves the authentic voice of the five-day trial, including the judge’s multiple interjections, many of them hostile to the accused, witnesses’ requesting page numbers, judge and counsel asking witnesses to speak up, the cut-and-thrust of the Q & A of the court room.

This is the spoken trial as it happened moment-by-moment, unedited, warts and all, rather than the trial as it was written down after the event. The opening address by the Crown is missing from HO 144 /  2685 as are the defences by Cecil Whiteley and Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett. These are inserted into the transcript from Notable British Trials.

IMAGES

Three new photographs have been added to the IMAGES section and been inserted into the relevant place of THE STORY (Chapter 1) and in the AVIS GRAYDON INTERVIEW. The first one concerns the wedding in the summer of 1920 of the milliner Lily Goodwin to Norman Vellender. Lily Goodwin and Edith Graydon, as they were known at work, were friends at Carlton & Prior, and Edith and Percy attended Lily’s wedding.

Lily’s nephew long ago shared one of his photos of the occasion with me. It shows Edith and Percy in the back row and has featured in Chapter 1 of THE STORY for a while. A chance search on ancestry.co.uk threw up a further photo taken shortly before or after the other one. This time Edith and Percy are in the front row. The owner of the photograph kindly shared it with me and moreover identified several of the other people in it. This new photo now appears immediately after the other one in Chapter 1.

The next two photographs concern the Manning family from Tulse Hill, south London. They were close friends of the Graydons. They feature in Edith Thompson’s letters and, prominently, in the AVIS GRAYDON INTERVIEW, where Tom and Jane Manning appear alongside another photo of the extended Manning clan. This includes the Beatrice mentioned by Edith in a letter of 13 March 1922:

When we were at Mrs. Manning’s her sister [Beatrice] asked him to go over there the following Sat., and when she asked me I hesitated, so she said I’ve already asked Percy, and he said ‘Yes’, so of course I did I’ve mentioned this to him in front of all at 231, and he didn’t question it, but a few days later said ‘he wasn’t going’ – he wouldn’t have me making arrangements to go anywhere without first consulting him, and obtaining his consent. The next morning I sent Beatty a card saying it was impossible to keep our promise to see her on Sat. In the afternoon I went home and had a general clean up everywhere. The sun was shining in the windows beautifully – it was a typically English spring day and I did so want to be in the park with you darlint.

The friendship between the two families lasted well beyond the tragedy. The Mannings were wealthy and the Graydons are remembered in their will.