Musical Comedy Actress Edith Marion Rosse - Natural Death or Murdered by Arthur Maundy Gregory for Her Money?

Memorial to Edith Marion Rosse (Milady), All Saints Church, Bisham, Berkshire.

"In love ever remember Edith Marion Rosse [Milday] who peacefully fell asleep in London on the 14th day of September 1932"

Edith Marion Rosse was born Edith Marion Davis to Frederick Davis, a factory foreman, and his wife Eliza staff, around 1873 in Edmonton, London. Edith can first be found on the 1881 Census aged 7, living with her mother, grandmother Sarah Staff and siblings at 19 Victoria Road, Hornsey, Middlesex. In her early life Edith worked as a teacher in Ludlow, Shropshire. Later she decided to move to America and lived in Wisconsin for a while

Edith's first husband was Harry Hobart Shepherd, a ship's purser, who she met on the ship she was returning to England on. Unfortunately, Harry was to die suddenly at Las Palmas, Spain, in 1900.

In 1907 Edith, now a musical comedy actress, married her second husband musician and composer Frederick Rosse.  

On the 1911 Census Edith can be found with her husband Frederick at the home of the mutual friend journalist, and theatre producer Arthur Maundy Gregory, at 32 High Street, 11 Walden House, Marylebone, London. Edith and Frederick were to separate in 1923, Edith continued to live with Arthur. Arthur was embroiled in the 1920s Honours for Sale Scandal and in 1932 Arthur was being sued by the estate of Sir George Watson for £30,000 for a baronetcy he had never received. Arthur had originally approached Edith for a loan, but she had refused, saying her money was for her old age.

On 19th August 1932, just after having lunch, Edith became suddenly ill with sickness and diarrhoea. Edith was visited by a doctor who initially diagnosed Edith with heat stroke. Arthur, who was away from the house at the time was sent for, and according to witnesses, the doctor and a housekeeper, Edith dictated a new will stating, 'Everything I have, if anything happens to me, to be left to Mr. Gregory, to be disposed of as he thinks best and in accordance with what I should desire.' This new will had been written in pencil on the back of a menu card from the Carlton Hotel. However, after a second doctor was sent for, Edith recovered. On the night of September 3rd 1832, Edith again was taken ill suddenly, the doctor was again sent for, but Edith remained in a semi-conscious state until she passed away on 14th September. Her cause of death was recoded as cerebral haemorrhage, and bright's disease, an old term for inflammation of the kidneys. 

Arthur supervised her burial, specifying a riverside plot in the churchyard at Bisham. He ordered the coffin lid to be left unsealed and the grave to be dug unusually shallow, only 18 inches from the surface.

Edith's niece Ethel Davis, who expected to inherit from her aunt's will made a complaint, and inquest was started, and eventually the order was given to exhume Edith's body which happened on 28th April 1933.  The coffin was found to be waterlogged.   Bernard Spilsbury, a forensic scientist used by the police, was in little doubt that the burial arrangements Arthur had made were intentional since, "the effect of water on decaying remains would make it impossible to detect the presence of certain poisons." The inquest gave an open verdict.

On 3rd May 1933 the Maidenhead Advertiser reported on the exhumation:

"Lady's Body Exhumed at Bisham

Last Thursday night the Berkshire police exhumed at Bisham Churchyard the body of Mr. Edith Marion Rosse, the former wife of Mr. Frederick Rosse, composer, from whom for the last ten years of her life she had been living apart. Chief-inspector Askew, of Scotland Yard, was present at the graveside with Dr. Roche Lynch, the pathologist. The body was taken to Paddington Mortuary because Mrs. Rosse died at Hyde Park Terrace." 

According to Edith's younger brother Frederick Davis, who was interviewed by Thompson's Weekly News, his sister went to great lengths to keep her working class roots a secret from her high society friends. Frederick is quoted as saying:

"When the body of my sister, Edith Marion Rosse, was exhumed, I little dreamed that so many stories would be told about her romantic life and her aristocratic upbringing. Unfortunately, my sister was responsible for these glamorous details, although she was as aware of our humble origin as I am."

"Edith was quite open with me and told me why she did not want me at her house. She said the people she associated with were far above the working man. She did not want them to know She was the daughter of poor people."

Arthur was later arrested in Germany for selling honours but was never tried for the suspected murder of Edith.  Arthur died in a German Labour Camp in occupied France on 28th September 1941.