Stemma Genealogy

A few years ago while researching extended family members, I was told the sad story of Emily Mary Jarvis.

Known as ‘Little Emily’ to her family and named after her mother Emily Rainsdon, she was born in Bursledon in 1911 and was the youngest of three.

Her father, John Charles Jarvis, First Mate for a foreign-going steamship died suddenly in 1918 at Knowle Asylum after suffering an epileptic fit. Leaving his wife, then aged 37 and their children: John aged 12, Albert aged 10 and Emily aged 6.

The family eventually moved to Johannesburg – a warmer climate was believed to be better for the children’s health – and Mrs Jarvis eventually remarries.

In 1935, ‘Little Emily’ returns to the UK to undergo treatment to remove a brain tumour and travels to London to purchase a trousseau for her wedding dress as she was to be married the following month. While travelling to Southampton, Emily came into contact with a young Irishman by the name of John Joseph ‘Paddy’ Keyes, who was a writer in the purser’s department of the Union Castle liner Winchester Castle. The pair became friends and met regularly.

In the early hours of Friday 5th July,  the bodies of ‘Little Emily’ Jarvis and ‘Paddy’ Keyes were discovered in a first class carriage at Southampton Terminus Station.

(Newspaper cutting – Times, London, 6 July 1935)

A guard, believing that the pair were asleep, opened the door to wake them only then to realise the full horror of the scene. The pair had suffered gunshot wounds to the chest (near the heart) and the pistol was found next to ‘Paddy’ Keyes

Some early newspaper reports suggest that the pair had decided on a suicide pact and that Emily wanted to remain in the UK,  however later reports suggest a more plausible alternative.

It would seem that ‘Paddy’ had fallen in love with Emily. Emily’s Aunt, Sarah Annie Randall states in The Evening News on Monday 8th July that “My niece had told me that Keyes loved her and had asked her to give up her fiance in Africa, but she had refused to do so”.

Hearing that she viewed their relationship as nothing more than friends,’Paddy’ decided that if he could not marry her then no-one else would. The jury returned the verdict that Mr Keyes had shot Miss Jarvis and then turned the gun on himself.

Emily was buried in her native village of Bursledon, Hampshire. Emily’s mother attended her funeral and her wreath bore a card that read “From her broken-hearted mother”. An additional large wreath was inscribed with “Sacred to the memory of my darling Em, from her sorrowing sweetheart, Ed, South Africa”.

Emily rests here in peace with other generations of this family.