Martha May Windle

Notes:

From Marjorie Smith:

Martha died tragically at the age of 18 years and 4 months from a burst appendix. Mother Sarah and sister Caroline were very close and grieved for her for the rest of their lives. Sarah always wore a cameo necklace with a photo of the young Martha. Marjorie thought that Martha was referred to as Mary, but her nickname was May.



From: Leanne Paterson

Leane saw Martha's autopsy report which put her death down to poisoning, not a burst appendix



From Mike Kelly:

Marjorie's version of events (above) was the story handed down through the family to cover up the shameful events that really occurred. Marjorie died in June 2014 and I never told her the horrific real story of Martha May (May) Windle.

The coroner's inquest concluded that Martha had died from phosphorous poisoning (rat poison). Her father, Alfred, maintained that Martha's fiance Patrick Walsh had mistreated her in the period leading up to her death. Sister Lily testified that she had never seen Martha mistreated by Walsh or his brother. Martha claimed a "man had come home affected by liquor and had taken advantage of her", the doctor said he was of the opinion that "certain events had taken place". After reading all the reports I came to the conclusion that father Alfred came home drunk and sexually assaulted her, which led directly to her taking her own life by ingesting rat poison. After that he had the gall to try and blame Patrick, but wife Sarah and the sisters testified otherwise. This would also explain why my grandmother hated him so much.

There was also an inference that Martha had threatened to take poison if Patrick continued abusing alcohol.



Buried:
Section EE Row T Plot 81