Mary Kelly at Salvation Army Meeting

[Rosella]

Thanks for the information regarding James Cooke etc. Very interesting!

It's a bit sad if true that many poor people went to their meetings for the soup and cups of tea offered afterwards. Still, only human nature, I suppose.

I just wish we knew a little more about MJK. Even true name and date of birth would be something.

[GUT]

I was a little surprised myself, Rosella, that Mary went to a Salvation Army service on a Sunday morning. But the only Catholic organization she's ever been linked to is the Provenance Row Night Refuge run by nuns.

James J Cooke was also Irish. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0075.html

I actually don't fnd it at all surprising that she went to a Salvo's service, they have built themselves on helping the poor I suspect that Mary would have taken assistance off anyone who would offer it.

[MayBea]

Cooke was, by all accounts, a devout army convert, a hard-working supervisor, and an extremely prolific writer....

Giving Women: Alliance and Exchange in Victorian Culture By Jill Rappoport

http://books.google.ca/books?id=a4dpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA108&dq=%22salvation+army%22+james+j+cook&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gSU_VMbOG4P4yASY_4G4Ag&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22salvation%20army%22%20james%20j%20cook&f=false

Rappoport has 3 or 4 pages on Jack the Ripper and the Slum Sister with Cooke as the source. I don't get a preview of those pages, however.

P.S. The link has a picture of James J Cooke with The Slum Sisters (p. 108).

[MayBea]

I was a little surprised myself, Rosella, that Mary went to a Salvation Army service on a Sunday morning. But the only Catholic organization she's ever been linked to is the Provenance Row Night Refuge run by nuns.

James J Cooke was also Irish. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0075.html

James J. Cooke, [was] an Irish officer chosen by General Booth to recommence Salvation Army work islandwide. It was 1892.

[Rosella]

The likelihood is that Mary Kelly would have been a Roman Catholic, she was certainly given a Roman Catholic funeral. Did she ever visit a priest for confession or attend a service?

[MayBea]

Originally posted by Maybea
William Booth, The War Cry
1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper, Peter Stubley

Correction: Stubley actually says the appeal was made by one of Booth's staff named
James J. Cook, and published by Booth in The War Cry.

Great find. It certainly helps piecing together Mary Kelly's events and timetable leading up to her untimely death

Thanks, ceejay. I think it might also help identify the "City Missionary" mentioned in the Mary Kelly press reports.

Could he be James J. Cook or Captain Walker's Lieutenant?

[ceejay75]

William Booth, The War Cry
1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper, Peter Stubley

http://books.google.ca/books?id=QZ87...%201888&f=true

Great find. It certainly helps piecing together Mary Kelly's events and timetable leading up to her untimely death

[MayBea]

Of course we are taking advantage of this terror, and are doing our utmost to bring the people to repentance. A few are getting saved. It was so sad to hear of the last murdered woman - Kelly - that she was quite recently on a Sunday morning in a lodging house where Capt Walker and her lieutenant were holding a meeting and sang from the same hymn book as the captain. Alas! She did not get saved.

William Booth, The War Cry
1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper, Peter Stubley

http://books.google.ca/books?id=QZ87AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT122&dq=salvation+army+year+book+1888&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ctU-VMm2EoX4yAS4nYCoCg&ved=0CCQQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=salvation%20army%20year%20book%201888&f=true