At the beginning of April 1906, Ethel Tyas began working for Mr Frederick Hunt and his wife, Louie. He ran a tobacconists shop, whilst Ethel’s domestic housework tasks for Mrs Hunt were light. Mrs Hunt found the girl to be a good worker, although noted that she always seemed to be worrying about something or other and therefore didn’t seem to settle as well as her employer would have liked. It soon became obvious that the girl was concerned that her boyfriend, back in Swinton had found another sweetheart to replace her. In fact Mr Hunt was so concerned about this that he wrote to Ethel’s parents to warn them of this matter.
On the morning of Friday 11 May 1906 the girl had been busy at her work before going to bed around 9.40 pm. The following morning, Mr Hunt rose at his usual time of 8 am and went downstairs expecting to see the young servant making the fire in the living room. Instead he found fires already blazing in both the kitchen and the living room, the doors unlocked and no sign of Ethel. The poor young girl was next seen by a man called William Gomersall who noticed her walking along the canal bank going from Kilnhurst to Mexborough. She was in front of him and suddenly he saw her stop and take off her jacket, fold it carefully and place it on the pathway.
To his surprise and horror, William then heard her give a terrifying scream before she jumped or fell into the water. As he approached her jacket, he saw an empty bottle of laudanum lying beside it on the ground. Immediately he made a great effort and, with the help of some passers-by, managed with some difficulty, to extricate the body from the water. Needless to say the Coroner Mr D Wightman was notified and he arranged for an inquest to be held at the Plant Hotel, Mexborough on Tuesday 15 May 1906. The girls mother Mary Tyas, was the first to give evidence and she told the Coroner that she had identified her daughters body.
She stated that Ethel was a healthy girl and was not in any trouble that she was aware of. A letter had been found in the girl’s jacket addressed to the witness, which was read out by Mr Wightman. The letter stated:
‘Dear Mother, Do not waste a tear over me. I shall be better off in Heaven, God knows what I have had to put up with the last day or two. Mrs Hunt says she wants to make a better lady of me. I dare say she does….’
Signing the letter Ethel, then wrote a post script. Referring to her boyfriend she wrote ‘poor lad, if I had my way, he would do the same as I have.’ The Coroner, who seemed to have already made his mind up that the deceased girl had been pregnant and presumed that it was that which was causing her some worry.
He asked Mary ‘after hearing this, do you still think she wasn’t in trouble?’ To which the witness answered simply ‘no sir.’ Mary told the inquest that she had only learned that her daughter had a sweetheart since her death. However Mr Wightman seemed convinced that the girl ‘had some trouble.’ Then the boyfriend, Joseph Meage also of Swinton gave his evidence, and stated that he was sixteen years of age and employed as a cleaner. He told the coroner that he had been keeping company with the deceased for the past couple of months or so, although he had not seen her since she went to work for Mr and Mrs Hunt.
However in answer to questions from the coroner, he said that they had never quarrelled and she was not in any trouble that he was aware of. He admitted getting two letters from her which were dated on Monday and Tuesday of last week. In these letters Ethel had suggested that he was courting another girl, a suggestion which he strongly denied. In fact he told the inquest that he had immediately written back to her strongly denying the suggestion. However by the time she would have received it, she was already dead. Then it was time for the Coroner, Mr Wightman to sum up the evidence for the jury, before they brought back a verdict of ‘suicide whilst temporarily insane.’
This is a most curious case where the real reason Ethel decided to take her life was never fully established. The coroner was obviously convinced that the girl was ‘in trouble’ but I have found no evidence to support it. The finding of the bottle of laudanum and her last letter gave the intention she chose to leave this life, so a post mortem to prove whether or not she was indeed pregnant, was deemed unnecessary. Nevertheless, her employer was convinced that she had been ‘uneasy’ in her mind, leading up to her death. But given Ethel’s immaturity and inexperience in matters of the heart, it is something from this distance of time, we will never know.