MJK Hair colour

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Hello everyone. Is there any consensus or high probability about Mary Jane Kelly's hair colour at the time of her death?

I read descriptions of her being blonde, brunette or redhead.

Thank you.

[GUT]

Hello everyone. Is there any consensus or high probability about Mary Jane Kelly's hair colour at the time of her death?

I read descriptions of her being blonde, brunette or redhead.

Thank you.

Short answer no consensus.

Personally I think a dark strawberry blonde, a bit like my son some would say blonde some say brunette but has a tint of red through it, the blonde/brunette changes depending on how much time he spends in the sun and what he is shampooing with, the red tinge is always there. But that is merely my take, I think that it is fair to say we don't know.

[Wickerman]

We read she was given the nickname 'Ginger', so her hair colour must have been some shade of red, wouldn't you think?

[GUT]

We read she was given the nickname 'Ginger', so her hair colour must have been some shade of red, wouldn't you think?

But wasn't she also "Dark Emma"?

[Amanda Sumner]

I though she had a nickname "Blackie" too....someone among her friends must have given a reliable description.

I have also seen the description " stout" but those remains on the bed seemed to show someone very slim...Odd

[Harry D]

Maybe the drapes didn't match the carpet?

[Janner]

I though she had a nickname "Blackie" too....someone among her friends must have given a reliable description.

I have also seen the description " stout" but those remains on the bed seemed to show someone very slim...Odd

I think it's possible that 'stout' could apply to someone healthy looking, robust - particularly at a time and place where people suffering some form of illness or malnutrition would be commonplace, perhaps even the norm (?)

[MrBarnett]

Hi Gut,

I thought it was 'fair' Emma. In which case fair could either mean attractive or having light coloured hair.

MrB

[Amanda Sumner]

Hi Gut,

I thought it was 'fair' Emma. In which case fair could either mean attractive or having light coloured hair.

MrB

Sorry, not " blackie" but " black Mary"

I agree, fair could have meant pretty too

Why Emma though?

Seems strange that all these descriptions are at odds with each other.

Someone must have given an accurate description of her.
She could not have been slim and stout, blond/fair/red/ and black!

[MrBarnett]

Hi Amanda,

Perhaps fair Emma was a reference to Emma Hamilton.

MrB

[Amanda Sumner]

THE Lady Hamilton?

She died decades before Mary was born.

No chance that this may have been her real name then?

[MrBarnett]

I wouldn't dismiss Lady H so quickly. She was renowned for her luxuriant chestnut hair and her portraits by Romney hung in the National Gallery. Her name was a byword for a particular kind of feminine beauty. If Mary had a similar look, it might explain the reference. Bit like calling an attractive blonde Marilyn today.

A little while ago I raised the intriguing discovery of a Mary Kelly, prostitute on the Whitechapel infirmary census return for 1881. One of the other inmates shown was Emma Davis, a widow. All very random, no doubt, but it set me wondering where MJK might have got the idea for a fictional past (if indeed she did). The MK on the census gave her place of birth as Whitechapel. Emma Davis gave hers as on board a ship from Canada.

It occurred to me that this ED could have been romanticising her past and subsequently assumed the name of her fellow inmate. Alternatively, the MK on the infirmary census might have adopted the more romantic story of ED to impress her mates in Dorset Street.

MrB

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Maybe the drapes didn't match the carpet?

I think it's a possibility.

I wanted to know what her hair colour was in November 1888, natural or not. Nothing about it in the official documents I read.

[markmorey5]

Black Mary was Mary Kelly's nickname for when she got drunk and abusive. Clearly she had a reputation! The nickname Ginger implies red or perhaps strawberry blonde hair, and Fair Emma implies pale skin which redheads often have.

Red hair is coarse, so for her hair to be waist-length it was more likely to be strawberry blonde.

[GUT]

Red hair is coarse, so for her hair to be waist-length it was more likely to be strawberry blonde.

My wife has red hair and at one time could sit on it so I don't think that your statement about the length relating to the colour is strictly true.

However I too think she may have been a strawberry blonde, but perhaps a darker shade.