Image Library

ALBUM 1: a set of published and unpublished photographs of Edith Thompson and Freddy Bywaters given to René Weis over a number of years by their families and friends and, in the case of Edith, by women who worked with her.
ALBUMS 2 & 3 contain a number of photos taken by René Weis or friends of relevant locations, notably of Edith’s two homes in Manor Park and Ilford, both inside and outside, and of the 1993 ceremony at Brookwood.
ALBUM 4 reproduces all the photographs of Elsa Carlton (the wife of Herbert Carlton’s son John) from the firm’s outing to Horley near Gatwick, on Friday 2 June 1922. Edith Thompson and her friends Lily and Norman Vellender feature in a number of them. So do Miss Prior, Charlie Carlton, Herbert Carlton, and other men and women who worked for Carlton & Prior. The images are reproduced here in the order in which they appear in Elsa Carlton’s album. All ALBUM 4 images are © René Weis. Materials on this site marked © René Weis can be downloaded for free for private use and research. They must not be used for commercial exploitation.

Album 1

A set of published and unpublished photographs of Edith Thompson and Freddy Bywaters provided by their families and friends.

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Album 2

Locations associated with the case, including Edith’s two homes in Manor Park and Ilford, both inside and outside.

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Album 3

Scans and Images related to Holloway Prison and the re-internments in Brookwood Cemetery 1993 & City of London Cemetery 2018-19.

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Album 4

Carlton & Prior (Edith’s employer) firm’s outing, with pictures of Edith and friends: Horley 2 June 1922.

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Album No. 2

Locations associated with the case

Album No. 3

Holloway Prison, Brookwood Cemetery 1993 & City of London Cemetery 2018-19

Mothers and children at Holloway Prison have a special exercise yard apart from other prisoners. There is grass for the children to play on, and as in all prison yards there are the usual concrete circular paths to walk on. The mothers walk slowly round and round, under the eye of an officer, or sit down on a seat with their children if they are tired.

At one corner of the ground stands an oblong bed of neatly trimmed evergreens. It attracts the eye at once for it stands alone, strangely out of place among the general scheme of flower—beds and paths. It is in the shape of a grave. In fact it is the grave of Mrs Thompson, the last woman to be hanged in Holloway, fifteen years ago. There is no stone, or mark, on her grave. A woman convicted of murder and hanged is buried in unconsecrated ground.

But there is no mistaking the shape of that little group of evergreens, and every prisoner knows what lies beneath it. A young prisoner, who had not been in for more than a week, asked me one day if ‘what they said’ was true.

Beyond the grave and over the top of a wall one can see the roof of the new execution shed recently constructed to accommodate the next condemned woman.

Cicely McCall, They Always Come Back (1938)

 

Album No. 4

An afternoon of fun and games in Edith Thompson’s life: Horley, Friday 2 June 1922