The Tragedy of the Girl from Ipanema

The Marjorie Burns Memorial in St George’s Church

Situated on the wall of the south side aisle, near to the War Memorial plaques in St George’s Church, Stalybridge, is a plaque that was brought from Old St George’s church when the building was closed for the final time, along with other plaques and monuments.  This particular plaque has the following inscription:

IN MEMORY OF MARJORIE BURNS MB ChB;
WIFE OF W.R.W. BURNS AND DAUGHTER
OF FRED AND MARY THOMPSON
OF SHAW BANK STALYBRIDGE.
DIED 21st MARCH 1929, AGED 29
AT RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL.

An entry in the 1930 Stalybridge Year Book Chronology on page 85 confirms this, where the caption reads: Death at Rio de Janiero of Dr Marjorie Burns (née Thompson) 21 March.

The question to be asked is who was Marjorie Burns?  Why did she die at so young an age?  Why did she die in Rio de Janeiro?

To investigate these answers, we need to look at the various families associated with Marjorie Burns, i.e.

1. The Thompson Family – Marjorie’s paternal parents
2. The Woodruff and Knowles Families – Marjorie’s maternal parents
3. The Birth of Marjorie Thompson
4. The Burns Family – her husband’s family
5. The Birth of Robert Ian Thompson Burns
6. The Death of Marjorie Burns

1. The Thompson family and the birth of Marjorie

Fred Thompson, the son of James and Ann Thompson (née Lawton), was born in Vale Cottages, Wood End, Mossley, around the year 1870 (Census 1871 and 1881) and was baptised on 1 May 1870 at Holy Trinity Church, Castle Hall, Stalybridge.  Wood End was then classed as being in the township of Saddleworth and the Ecclesiastical District of Lydgate, within the local board of Mossley and between Mill Lane and Roughtown Road.

His father James, aged 45, originally a Cotton Loom Overlooker before becoming a Brewer’s Traveller, was born in Stalybridge, as was his wife Ann.  They were married at St Michael’s church in Mottram in Longdendale on 27 July 1857.

James had five siblings, whilst Ann had six. James and Ann had two children: Hannah was born on 20 April 1868 in Vale Cottages, Wood End, Mossley, and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Stalybridge on 7 June 1868.  Their son, Fred, was born in Mossley, probably at Vale Cottages at Woodend, on 28 January 1870, since he too, was baptised on 1 May 1870 at Holy Trinity Church, Stalybridge and the 1871 Census lists him as being one year old.

In the 1881 Census the family were living at 63 Tame Valley, Dukinfield.  Although Park Road in Dukinfield is now well known as Tame Valley, the OS Map of 1882, whilst listing the area as Tame Valley, does not show any street labelled “Tame Valley” as such.  The house where they lived was probably on Park Road, near to its junction with Tower Street, Brierley Street and Grove Street. Their son, Fred, aged 11 is listed as being a scholar.

By the time of the 1891 Census, the family had moved to live at Park View, near to the Sycamore Inn on Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, on (George Harry) Mellor Road. The house next door was known as Throstles Nest, and named after the Cotton Mill opposite, situated in Stamford Park, but both the cotton mill and Throstles Nest house have since been demolished and flats have been erected on the latter site. These are now also called Park View.  James aged 55, is the head of the household, a retired commercial traveller, living with his wife Ann (59), their daughter Hannah (22), a Pupil Teacher at a school, along with their son Fred (21) now a Solicitor’s Articled Clerk.

On 15 June 1898, at St Mary’s Church, Cheadle, Fred Thompson, from Mossley, married Mary Woodruff originally from Stalybridge.  Mary was born around July 1864 (1921 Census) at the Boars Head Public House, 96 Market Street, Stalybridge, and was baptised on 3 August 1864 at St Mary’s Church, Stockport. The marriage entry from Cheshire BMD is shown below:

St Mary’s Church in Cheadle was the parish church for the township of Handforth cum Bosden (see below).

After their marriage, the 1901 Census shows that Fred (31) now a solicitor, Mary (36) a housewife, and their new- born daughter Marjorie Thompson, aged 1 year, are living at Hillside, (now No. 109) George Mellor Road, Ashton-under-Lyne.  The 1891-1892 OS map of Ashton published in 1894, shows that the above road was originally named as George Harry Mellor Road, after George Harry Mellor J.P. who served as Mayor of Ashton from 1875 to 1878.  The road is now simply called Mellor Road, and is the western boundary of Stamford Park.  Prior to its third renaming, Mellor Road was called Higham Fold. The family also have a live-in general domestic servant, Hannah Pownall (20) from Crewe.

Ten years later, in 1911, Fred (41) and Mary (46) and their live-in general domestic servant (now a Bertha Millington (19) also from Crewe) had already moved to Shaw Bank, Mottram Road, Stalybridge (1911 Census) and he is now a solicitor.  The current address for Shaw Bank, is 141 Mottram Old Road, Stalybridge.  The house is situated at the corner of Mottram Old Road between the junction of Stalyhill Road and Mottram Road. 

The revised OS map of 1896, published 1898, (shown below) indicates the location of Shaw Bank at the end of Mottram Old Road.  Matley Brewery Road is now Woodend Lane, and Matley Spring Brewery, which used the spring water from Matley Spring, for brewing the beer, closed in the 1830s and was demolished in the 1950s.  The Dog and Partridge pub on Mottram Road was demolished in 2019 and new houses have since been erected on the site.

By 1921, Fred, still a solicitor and working at 123, Stamford Street, Stalybridge, was employing a Reginald Garforth Cooke (b. 1 May 1901) as a law student.  Fred and Reginald would go on to form the local firm of Thompson and Cooke Solicitors at 123, Stamford Street, Stalybridge.  The website of Thompson and Cooke indicates that the firm was founded in the 1930s.  At some point in the past, the houses and dwellings were renumbered and Thompson and Cooke now occupy the premises at 12, Stamford Street, Stalybridge.

2. The Woodruff and Knowles families

Thomas Woodruff, the son of Thomas and Frances Woodruff (née Knowles) was born in Bosden, about 1835 and baptised on 29 May 1835 at St Mary’s Church, Stockport.  Father Thomas was listed as a farmer in the Baptism Register.

Bosden, originally a detached hamlet, was near to Offerton Green, approximately 2½ miles south-south east of Stockport and 5 miles from Handforth, in the parish of Handforth cum Bosden, located within the ancient parishes of Stockport and Cheadle in the Macclesfield Hundred of Cheshire.  Handforth cum Bosden became a civil parish in 1866, but this only lasted until 1877, when the two sections became separate parishes within Stockport Rural Sanitary District, and then later became Stockport Rural District.  In 1900 Bosden parish was abolished and the area became part of the Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District until 1974 when this was also abolished.  It has since formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester and a housing estate named Bosden Farm was built there later.  St Mary’s Church, Cheadle, was the ancient parish church for the township of Handforth cum Bosden.

In the early 1900s, following the trend to house pauper children away from the workhouse, the Stockport Union established a number of ‘Children’s Scattered (Isolated) Homes’ in and around Stockport, each having a number of children together with a house mother.  Brook House School, at 41 Bank Lane, was such a home, and at the age of 15, Thomas Woodruff was a boarder at Brook House School, Manchester Road, Heaton Norris (1851 Census).

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockport/#Homes

On 24 April 1860, at St Mary’s Church, Stockport, Thomas Woodruff married Frances Knowles, who was born on 26 March 1834 in Portwood, Stockport.  They had six children: their eldest, Ann (1861-1947) was born in Stockport, while Mary (1864-1931), Thomas (1867-1956), William (1870-1872), Walter (1873-1948) and Frances (1876-1957) were all born in Stalybridge, and all probably at the Boars Head Public House on Market Street.

In the 1861 Census, Thomas Woodruff is shown as a Licensed Victualler at the now demolished Waggon and Horses Public House, 30 Edward Street, Stockport with his wife Frances living there also.

Their daughter, Mary Woodruff, who will later go on to marry Fred Thompson, was baptised on 3 August 1864 at St Mary’s Church, Stockport.

In the 1871 Census, when Mary Woodruff was 6 years old, her father, Thomas Woodruff, was the Licensee of The Boar’s Head Public House on Market Street, Stalybridge, having bought it in 1862 and continued there until 1882.  Also living with Thomas and Frances were their children Ann (10), Mary (6), Thomas (3) and William (4 months old). Fanny Williams (29) from Stockport was a general servant and Joshua Gartside (22) from Stalybridge, a barman also lived on the premises.

The 1881 census now shows Thomas (45), Frances (47), Ann (19), Mary (16), Walter (7) and Frances (4).  On the premises were Thomas Orrel-Jagger, a barman, born in Ashton under Lyne, Mary Turner, a general servant born in Penistone, Yorkshire and their niece, Minnie Rainforth (20) from Lytham, Lancashire.

Thomas died aged 51 years on 9 May 1886, and his wife Frances took over as Licensee from 1887 – 1888. 

Magee, R. Stalybridge Pubs and their licensees 1750 – 1990 (Neil Richardson ISBN 1 85216 061 6) p9

After his death, his Estate amounted to £6582-18s-6d, valued at approximately £1.1m in 2023.  This was left to Frances Woodruff, Ann Woodruff and their nephew William Lomas of Stockport, an Innkeeper.

In 1891, Frances was a boarder at 41 Promenade, North Meols, a civil parish and electoral ward in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire (1891 Census).  Historically the parish covered a wider area including much of what is now Southport.  She was staying there accompanied by her daughter Ann in the guest house run by George and Anne Mercer.

On 27 April 1897, Frances, aged 63 years, died at Westleigh, Cheadle Heath, Stockport.

3. Birth of Marjorie Thompson

Marjorie Thompson, the daughter of Fred and Mary Thompson (née Woodruff) was born at home in George Mellor Road, Ashton under Lyne in late December 1899 or early January 1900 (the exact date is not known).  She was baptised at Old St George’s Church on 23 January 1900, by Revd J.B. Jelly-Dudley.  A copy of the entry in the Baptism Register is shown below.  Rev J.B. Jelly-Dudley’s name should appear in column 7, but he chose only to record ditto marks from his signature at the top of the page.

Manchester, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
for Marjorie Thompson
Stalybridge, Old St George > 1865 – 1906

By the Census of 1911, Marjorie, now aged 11 years, is a boarder at Heaton Norris School, a private school run by the sisters Misses Emilie Jane and Louise Harriet Sales.  The school has 12 female teachers who teach a variety of subjects, and on the staff are also 1 domestic cook and 4 housemaids.  In total there are 17 scholars from the United Kingdom (London, Hull, Liverpool) and places abroad (Cyprus, etc).  The school has 49 rooms, so the premises were quite large.  The address is given as Fylde Lodge, 36 Mauldeth Road, Heaton Mersey.  Today, Fylde Lodge has been renamed as College Court and is at the junction of Mauldeth Road, Priestnall Road and Thornfield Road, Heaton Mersey SK4 3RW.

Leaving school, Marjorie went on to undertake the study of medicine at the Victoria University of Manchester, and, qualifying from there, was registered on 24 December 1923 with the General Medical Council as M.B. Ch.B.  It is not known if, or where, she practised as a doctor.  She lived at Shawbank, Mottram Road, Stalybridge and continued to live there afterwards.

On 23 July 1927, Marjorie, accompanied by her father Fred and mother Mary departed from Liverpool docks onboard Demerara (Official number 132024) a ship of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, bound for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where she was later to marry William Robert Wheatley Burns, an engineer by trade, working out in Rio. 

The ship Demerara was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched in December 1911 and delivered in August 1912 for the Liverpool – River Plate service.  It had accommodation for 98 1st Class passengers, 38 2nd Class passengers and 800 in steerage class.  With a length of 500ft x 62ft beam, a gross tonnage of 11,484 tons, built of steel with twin screw propulsion it was capable of 15 knots.  However, on 1 July 1917 it was torpedoed off La Rochelle but reached port and repaired, and was later scrapped in 1933 in Japan. 

By comparison, RMS Titanic had a gross tonnage of 46,328 tons and measured 882ft x 92ft, which is small compared to one of the largest cruise liners of today (2023) Wonder of the Seas (Royal Caribbean International) having a gross tonnage of 236,857 and measuring 1188ft x 216ft.

It is not known how or where Marjorie and William met.

4. The Burns family

William Thomas Burns, a physician and surgeon, the son of William Burns (1845–1917) and Mary Ann Burns (née Dennis) (1848–1917) was born in 1871 in Frizington, Cumberland.  He was the brother of John Edward Burns (1870–1874), Frances Mary Burns (1873–1874), Lilian Ann Burns (1875–1952), Florence Eleanor Burns (1877–1964), Percy Edwin Burns (1879–1910), Herbert Proctor Burns (1880–1939) and Harold Bertram Burns (1882–1950).

On 21 October 1897 William Thomas Burns (1871–1925) aged 26 years, married Ethel Mary Wheatley (1866–1928) at St John the Baptist in Crosby-on-Eden, Cumberland where he lived.  Ethel Mary Wheatley, the daughter of James Atkinson Wheatley, a goldsmith and jeweller, from Stanwix in Carlisle and Catherine Jane Wheatley (née Lamb) from Liverpool, was born in 1865 in Carlisle, Cumberland and baptised on 22 January 1866 at St Cuthbert’s Church, Carlisle.

One year later, in 1898, their son William Robert Wheatley Burns was born with his birth being registered in the October to December quarter of that year.  The 1901 Census, when William was 2 years old, notes him living at 7 The Crescent, Carlisle, with his father William Thomas Burns (31) a physician and surgeon, his mother Ethel Mary Burns (34), his younger brother Cyril Burns (9 months old) born in Carlisle, along with Mary Burns (53) his grandmother and mother of William Burns, who was born in Derby.  Living with them are their cook, Elizabeth Donaldson (21) from Carlisle and Wilhelmina McKie (17) a domestic nurse from Scotland.

During the First World War, William Robert Wheatley Burns signed up on 17 May 1917 to join the Royal Flying Corps (AIR 76/67/204) and in 1917 became a Temporary Second Lieutenant.  He spent some time in hospital in 1918 and was discharged in 1922.

In the same year of 1922, William Robert Wheatley Burns, aged 23 years and living at Kent House, Portland Square, Carlisle, was a passenger onboard the Royal Mail Steam packet Company’s ship Demerara, bound for Rio De Janeiro, Brazil departing from Liverpool on 11 April.  He returned from there on 22 August 1926 at Liverpool onboard the Deseado, another Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship.

At some point after that, he must have returned to Rio de Janeiro, although no record could be found, since on 20 August 1927, when William Robert Wheatley Burns was 28 years of age, he married Marjorie Thompson aged 27 years at the Anglican Episcopal Church in the City of Rio de Janeiro in the United States of Brazil.  The church is situated at 253 R. Haddock Lobo, Rio de Janeiro.  The marriage ceremony was performed by Revd H.F. Morrey Jones, the British Chaplain and Archdeacon of Brazil.

A copy of the entry in the church registers is given below.

Note that in column 7, both parent’s names are given, which at that time, is most unusual.  However, the officiating minister has incorrectly given the name of William’s mother as Edith, instead of Ethel.  The witnesses to the marriage were William’s uncle Henry Lawrence Wheatley born in 1868 and Marjorie’s father and mother, Fred and Mary.

As an aside, Marjorie signed the marriage register in her married name, whereas she should have signed it in her maiden name.

5. The birth of Robert Ian Thompson Burns

In approximately 1928, in Ipanema, their new-born child Robert Ian Thompson Burns entered the world.  In the same year, on 25 February 1928, William’s mother Ethel Mary Wheatley died in Kent House, Portland Square, Carlisle, and in August of the same year, William’s sister Gwendolen arrived in Brazil.

6. The Tragedy of the Girl from Ipanema

On 21 March 1929, Marjorie Burns sadly died in Rio de Janeiro and was buried in the Cemiterio dos Ingleses Gamboa, also known as the English Cemetery or British Cemetery Gamboa.  This was land given to the British by John VI of Portugal in 1809.  Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford, the British Ambassador to the Emperor’s Court, founded the cemetery, with the first burial taking place in 1811.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemitério_dos_Ingleses,_Gamboa

The grave inscription (which has the same words as on the plaque in St George’s church) reads:

MARJORIE BURNS MB ChB
WIFE OF W.R.W. BURNS
DAUGHTER OF FRED AND MARY THOMPSON, STALYBRIDGE.
DIED 21st MARCH 1929
AGED 29

Marjorie’s grave, shown below, can also be viewed at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125027803/marjorie-burns

Below is an extract from England and Wales, National Probate Calendar

This would be valued at approximately £78,000 in 2023.

Their apartment was approximately 110 metres away from the beach in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made famous in the song written in 1962 by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes
Goes "a-a-a-h"

On 21 April 1929, William Robert Wheatley Burns arrived back in Southampton on the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s ship Asturias from Rio de Janeiro, with his new born son, Robert Ian Burns, aged 1 year old, to return to their home at Shaw Bank, Stalybridge, and was accompanied by his sister Gwendolen. 

William Robert Wheatley Burns continued to make return journeys to Rio de Janeiro from the United Kingdom on account of his work as an engineer. 

On a return journey from Rio de Janeiro, onboard the Royal Mail Lines Ltd ship Highland Princess the ship arrived in the United Kingdom on 24 September 1936.  William is listed as working for The Rio de Janeiro City Improvements Co. Ltd., of 302 Gresham House, Old Broad Street, London EC2.  He is accompanied by his new wife, Augusta Margaretta Anne Burns (née Evans), born 31 August 1897, at Dingleside, Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire, and whom he married in 1933 at St Brides Major, Bridgend, Glamorgan.

William, together with Augusta, both of whom are living at Graig-ddu (sic) Southerndown, PenyBont, Glamorgan, travel abroad again, on 8 May 1937 bound for Rio de Janeiro, again onboard Highland Princess, and return on 15 July 1937 on Highland Brigade to London.  This was to be the last time, since William Robert Wheatley Burns died at 18, Cathedral Road, Cardiff, on 8 June 1938 when he was 39 years old.

The 1939 Register shows Augusta M. A. Burns, now a widow, living at the above address in Southerndown, but from 1955 she moved to live by the sea at Craig-Ddu, Main Road, Ogmore-By-Sea, Glamorgan.

Augusta died on 8 December 1986 at Bro Ewenni Nursing Home, Ewenny, Bridgend, Mid, Glamorgan, Wales

And what of Marjorie and William’s son, Robert? 

There is a marriage registered under the name of Robert Ian Thompson Burns in July 1950 marrying a Maxine Mary Ball at Manchester Register Office or with the Registrar attending.  However, four years later, on 2 March 1954, Robert Ian Thompson Burns of M.Y. Penguin, Sailors Creek, Flushing, near Falmouth, died at Prisk Beach, Mawnan, Cornwall.  Sailors Creek is on the north side of the Penrhyn river, near to the hamlet of Gorrangorras and Bissom Farm.  Probate was given to his widow, Maxine Mary Burns with the estate being valued at £2371-12s-7d equivalent to £83,000 in 2023.

Marjorie’s mother, Mary Thompson, died in Stalybridge on 10 October 1931 aged 67 years, and was buried in Mottram Cemetery (Section A, Grave 1451) on 13 October 1931.  Her father, Fred, aged 61, also died in Stalybridge just 19 days later, on 1 November 1931 and was buried on 4 November 1931 in the same grave as his wife Mary.  Fred’s sister, Hannah, aged 74, died in Stalybridge in 1942 and was buried in the same grave on 19 August 1942.