HER LAST NOTE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3783, 17 July 1936, Page 8

HER LAST NOTE

GRANDDAUGHTER OF DICKENS. A note, almost indecipherable, which was found in the flat of Miss Ethel Kate Dickens, 72, granddaughter of Charles Dickens, the novelist, after her death, was mentioned at an inquest in London recently. Miss Dickens died in St. Lukes Hospital, Chelsea, forty-eight hours after she had been discovered unconscious in her flat in Upper Manor Street, Chelsea (says the Daily Telegraph). An open verdict was recorded. Dr. Edwin Smith, the Coroner, found that death was due to an overdose of luminal drug, but that there was insufficient evidence to show under what circumstances it was taken. The coroner stated that the note, which was in the handwriting of the dead woman, contained such broken sentences as “I am afraid there is nothing, . . . Elsie could have my fur coat. Reply to Warning. Dr. Cowley said he had been attending Miss Dickens for some years. She told him she took luminal tablets because she slept so badly. He warned her of the danger of taking the drug regularly. In reply to one warning she said: “Oh, I would never do anything silly.” Dr. Holland, medical superintendent at St. Lukes’ Hospital, observed that the accumulative effect of taking luminal tablets over a long period might have the same result as a big dose. Miss Cecille Mary Dickens, of Whittingstall Mansions, Fulham, said that hey sister Ethel had good health but had suffered from insomnia. She had been quite cheerful and had no financial worries of any kind. Mr. Charles Elton Openshaw, the playwright, of Pont Street, Chelsea, said he had dinner with Miss Dickens the previous Friday. She was very cheerful and talked of a party she was arranging to give to her friends. The Coroner pointed out that these drugs were much more powerful than those who were in the habit of taking them very often thought. People taking drugs very often had faulty memory and might repeat the dose at a short interval. He thought it would be unwise to place too much importance upon the note.