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Something struck me when I was looking over Michael Kidney's testimony that I hadn't noticed before - a strange reference to the brother of Liz's former employer when she worked near Hyde Park:
[Coroner] You can assign no reason whatever for her going away so suddenly? - She would occasionally go away.
[Coroner] Oh, she has left you before? - During the three years I have known her she has been away from me about five months altogether.
[Coroner] Without any reason? - Not to my knowledge. I treated her the same as I would a wife.
[Coroner] Do you know whether she had picked up with any one? - I have seen the address of the brother of the gentleman with whom she lived as a servant, somewhere near Hyde Park, but I cannot find it now.
[Coroner] Did she have any reason for going away? - It was drink that made her go on previous occasions. She always came back again. I think she liked me better than any other man. I do not believe she left me on Tuesday to take up with any other man.
This seems like a very odd bit of information to offer in response to the Coroner's question: 'Do you know whether she had picked up with any one?' So, who was this brother of her employer - the person who employed her when she first came to London many years before she met either John Stride or Michael Kidney? And why on earth would Michael Kidney have had access to his address, or would Liz have kept it? And what had been her relationship with him? Why would Michael Kidney assume she would have 'taken up' with him, especially after all of these years? I'm wondering if Liz may have been this man's mistress for a brief period before she was married.
I'm wondering if anyone else has addressed this question elsewhere on the forum. Seems very peculiar.
[Coroner] You can assign no reason whatever for her going away so suddenly? - She would occasionally go away.
[Coroner] Oh, she has left you before? - During the three years I have known her she has been away from me about five months altogether.
[Coroner] Without any reason? - Not to my knowledge. I treated her the same as I would a wife.
[Coroner] Do you know whether she had picked up with any one? - I have seen the address of the brother of the gentleman with whom she lived as a servant, somewhere near Hyde Park, but I cannot find it now.
[Coroner] Did she have any reason for going away? - It was drink that made her go on previous occasions. She always came back again. I think she liked me better than any other man. I do not believe she left me on Tuesday to take up with any other man.
This seems like a very odd bit of information to offer in response to the Coroner's question: 'Do you know whether she had picked up with any one?' So, who was this brother of her employer - the person who employed her when she first came to London many years before she met either John Stride or Michael Kidney? And why on earth would Michael Kidney have had access to his address, or would Liz have kept it? And what had been her relationship with him? Why would Michael Kidney assume she would have 'taken up' with him, especially after all of these years? I'm wondering if Liz may have been this man's mistress for a brief period before she was married.
I'm wondering if anyone else has addressed this question elsewhere on the forum. Seems very peculiar.