'Priez Pour Lui'

by Kate Jones

If you walk up the drangway to Oystermouth parish church from Mumbles Road and look to your left in the churchyard you will see an unusual grave – unusual because the inscription is in French? You might wonder why. It reads as follows:

Toliclere or Joliclere? The first puzzle is the surname. ‘Toliclere’ is how it is spelt on the grave and in the All Saints’ burial register, but contemporary newspapers and documents spell the name as ‘Joliclere’.

Who, when, how and why? According to the inscription Elie Louis Joliclere (Toliclere) was born in in Paris on 12 February 1848 and died in Mumbles on the 5 June 1873. Beneath the dates is written: ‘priez pour lui’ (pray for him). As the summer visitor asked - who was this young Frenchman and what was he doing in Mumbles? What happened to him? The answers to the first two questions are contained in local newspapers of 1873. M. Joliclere was employed as a teacher of French at a private school in Thistleboon where, on 6 June, he committed suicide. An inquest was of course held and the original hand-written report survives in the West Glamorgan Archive. Although the handwriting is difficult to decipher, this document contains much that goes some way to answering the other two questions.

The following is an account of the final few months of Elie Louis Joliclere who was deemed to have taken his own life on 5 June 1873, aged 25.

Thistleboon House in the 1860s [artist unknown]

The Inquest: Twelve ‘good and lawful men’: On the evening of Friday 6 June 1873 twelve men from various parts of Mumbles gathered at the large building called Thistleboon House at the top of Western Lane. Thistleboon House (which dated back to the 17th century) was home to the Reverend John Robert Dawe Colston, who owned and ran a private school called Thistleboon Academy there. The western end of the house was a farmhouse occupied by John Beynon, a farmer of 135 acres. There was more than one John Beynon in Mumbles but it seems likely that it was this one, a prominent local man, who was one of the twelve. The others were Josiah Owen Morris, William Morris, John Bevan, David Evan Michael, Richard Rees, Joseph Frith Loney, John Rees, James Owen, George Lee, John Tudor and James Harris.

These were twelve ‘good and lawful men’ of the ‘Liberties of Gower and Kilvey’ who were sworn in as jurors for the inquest before Mr Edward Strick, the coroner. That evening they were ’charged to inquire for our Lady the Queen when, where, how and by what means Elie Louis Joliclere came to his death’.

The Evidence: Three people gave evidence – Frederick Edward Mortimer (assistant schoolmaster), Margaret Lloyd (domestic servant) and John Bevan (the doctor present at the death). By piecing together their testimonies a sad story emerges.

Elie Louis Joliclere was a lieutenant in the French army. He had joined up at the age of 17 and served in a cavalry regiment. He spent three years in Cochin-china [at that time a French colony; now part of Vietnam] where he had been wounded in his left knee. In June 1872 he went home on leave – his father was a banker living a few miles north of Paris. However, Elie did not get on with his family and he fell out with his friends and for these reasons he left France at the end of 1872. In February 1873, still officially on leave from the French Army, he was appointed as an assistant master teaching French to boys at Thistleboon Academy in Mumbles.

Extract from the school’s prospectus, c. 1870, Courtesy of West Glamorgan Archive Service

Thistleboon House Academy, Mumbles: When Elie Joliclere joined the teaching staff at Thistleboon Academy in 1873, the school was ‘conducted’ by Rev. John Robert Dawe Colston. Originally from Bristol, John Colston had established a school in Swansea’s York Street in the 1840s. In 1859 he moved his school to the smarter and healthier location of Thistleboon, where he built a new schoolroom and dormitories. In the 1861 census Thistleboon House accommodated 48 people, including 29 boy boarders (aged between 9 and 16). The majority came from West Wales and nearby towns, but some hailed from more distant places including London, Northumberland, France and the West Indies! The French master was born in Hungary. In 1871 there were 24 boarders and the French master, August Moriamé, was Belgian which makes Elie Joliclere’s appointment less puzzling.

The school was advertised for ‘young gentlemen’ who would be ‘liberally boarded and parentally treated (John Colston and his wife Frances had a large family of their own) and expeditiously qualified for the learned professions and the counting houses of the merchant.’ The day and boarding students were taught a wide curriculum and prepared for University Examinations. Many pupils went on to have successful careers both locally and further afield. The school was successful and Colston himself highly esteemed as a teacher. He was very involved in the local community which gained him not only much respect but also genuine liking.

Colston had been a staunch Methodist but around 1864 he left the Methodist church and was ordained into the Church of England. He subsequently served for 9 years as a non-stipendary curate at All Saints’. In 1869 the family suffered two tragedies. In July their third daughter Martha, aged 14, drowned whilst bathing in Langland Bay. Three months later in October, Isobel, one of Colston’s twin daughters, died a few days short of her first birthday.

The Cambrian, 10 January 1873

Friendship with Frederick Edward Mortimer: Although an excellent English speaker, Elie was at first understandably ‘quiet in his manner’ and spent most of his time with Frederick Mortimer who was also resident at the school – the two young men enjoying long discussions and a good smoke. Elie soon made other friends; he liked company, was often in high spirits and full of jokes and ‘accidentally drank to excess’ – something he was careful to conceal. By Easter he had acquired a horse and rode regularly, using his spurs which Mortimer thought was rather cruel.

Joliclere wrote to the French army informing them of his intention to resign. He told Mortimer he regretted his behaviour in Paris the previous year which: ‘caused him to forfeit the good opinion of his friends’. He did not like being alone and frequently knocked at Mortimer’s door asking him to come and smoke with him. At times he seemed to be in ‘low spirits’. True, he was in debt, but as he was often in receipt of money, including his army pay, this did not seem to weigh heavily upon him. At no time did he say anything within Mortimer’s hearing that might indicate suicidal tendencies, although he did recount a tale of having to be dissuaded by an officer from shooting himself on account of something he had done.

Wednesday 4 June 1873: Elie planned to return to Paris on Saturday 7 June. On the Wednesday afternoon he was seen riding his horse at Langland Bay - ‘furiously … through the sea into the small bay [Rotherslade] and up a most difficult path’. He then rode to Mumbles and came up the steep hill ‘as hard as the horse could go.’ Later, he gave friends small ornaments as keepsakes. That evening he was very quiet which struck Mortimer as ‘odd’. He left the house at half past nine and had not returned when Mortimer went to bed.

As one of the servants employed at the school Margaret Lloyd saw Elie Joiclere every day and she testified: ‘I never observed anything peculiar about him at all.’ That evening she was in the kitchen when Joliclere appeared at half past 10. She thought he seemed ‘low spirited’. A pupil who had been working for an exam called in to say goodnight and Joliclere asked him to fetch a bottle and some sugar from his room. Bringing the bottle the pupil told him that he thought he had passed well in French to which Joliclere replied he was ‘glad to hear of it’. He then poured whiskey from the bottle, added hot water and sat at the table with his head in his hands. When Margaret asked him what the matter was, he replied: ‘Oh, nothing much’. But he ate an egg and drank tea with her and three other servants telling them he was leaving at 9am on Saturday. At midnight they all retired to bed. As Margaret passed Joliclere’s open bedroom door he said: ‘Good night and good bye’, which at the time she thought nothing of.

Thursday 5 June 1873: The next morning, at about 8 o’clock, Frederick Mortimer went as usual to his friend’s room on his way down to breakfast. Three candles were burning and Joliclere, undressed and in bed, appeared to be fast asleep. Hoping to wake him, Mortimer kicked the door but Elie only made a noise that indicated heavy slumber. On the table were a large bottle and a glass tumbler, so perhaps he had been drinking and was sleeping heavily as a result? Joliclere generally smoked last thing at night but his pipe was also on the table. Mortimer extinguished the candles and went down to breakfast.

During breakfast it became apparent that something was wrong. Hurrying back to his friend’s room Mortimer thought how tidy everything was. It was clear Joliclere was not just asleep, but in a stupor. Margaret Lloyd fetched some water to wash his face and hands, noticing the finger nails had changed colour. The doctor was sent for.

Dr John Bevan knew Elie Joliclere, having attended him four times previously. He had thought him an excitable young man, but on this occasion found his patient in a coma; his breathing and pulse barely perceptible. His eyes were partially closed; the pupils rather dilated, consistent with the effect of opium. Dr Bevan sniffed and tasted the dregs in the glass tumbler. He did his best to bring Elie around, but without success and the young teacher died just 10 minutes after the doctor’s arrival.

Post-mortem: Dr Bevan conducted a post-mortem with Dr Lloyd of Swansea Hospital. They noted the scar on the left knee, heart and lungs were healthy, kidneys were enlarged and the brain ‘congested’. There were no marks of violence. The stomach contained about 4 ounces of dark fluid with a peculiar smell, but after a ‘rough analysis’ Dr Bevan could detect neither opium nor laudanum (which, as he observed, ‘are the same’). The glass tumbler that he had smelt and tasted earlier had however contained laudanum which Dr Bevan thought had been taken 6 or 8 hours before death, adding that ‘laudanum is not speedy in its action.’ The only cause of death was narcotic poisoning.

‘The Lure of Laudanum’: By the 1800s laudanum (a tincture of opium) was widely available and, at a time before asprin, anti-depressants and effective sleeping pills, it was widely used to treat all manner of ailments from pain to nervous disorders. It was addictive. By 1868 its dangers were recognised and it could only be sold by registered chemists and had to be clearly labelled as a poison. Frederick Mortimer told the jurors that the previous week he had gone into Swansea on an errand for his friend. He handed a note from Joliclere to Mr Griffiths, a druggist, and collected a wrapped bottle which he had to sign for. He was not certain whether the ledger entry said opium or laudanum, but Elie reassured him he had taken it before, mixed with cold water. The bottle could not now be found.

The inquest verdict: After hearing all the evidence the jurors returned a verdict that Elie Louis Joliclere, 25 years of age and a lieutenant in the French army had: ‘committed suicide by taking poison whilst suffering from a diseased state of mind’. The local papers carried reports. ‘SHOCKING SUICIDE AT SWANSEA’ screamed the Western Mail on 7 June in a fit of alliteration, following this up two days later with ‘LATE SUICIDE AT SWANSEA’. The Cardiff Times and the Cambrian were more dignified with: ‘SUPPOSED SUICIDE OF FRENCH GENTLEMAN AT THE MUMBLES’. There was less sensational coverage in the Carmarthen Weekly Reporter and the Wrexham Guardian and in the South Wales Daily Post – below.

The Cambrian, 10 January 1873

Afterwards: What effect the tragic events of June 1873 had on the staff and pupils of Thistleboon Academy is not known. But in December, after ‘giving 27 years of his life to the cause of education’ Rev. John Colston sold the school and moved to Liverpool to run a mission church there. In his final sermon at All Saints’ which lasted 40 minutes, he spoke of the churchyard ‘which held two dear hostages of undying affection’ (his daughters Martha and Isobel). Did he think of the young Frenchman who had died in his employ, also buried in All Saints’ churchyard?

Burial at All Saints’: The story raises questions that we will never know the answers to. But Elie Louis Joliclere was buried on Saturday 7 June, the day he had planned to return home to France perhaps hoping make a new start in life. It seems likely that his family paid for the gravestone as the inscription is in French and includes his date of birth. Until 1961 suicide in Great Britain was a crime. This criminalisation reflected religious and moral objections to what had long been considered self-murder. By the 19th century there was greater tolerance and awareness, with suicide seen as a medical or emotional problem. Elie Joliclere was buried in consecrated ground, but the inscription ‘Priez pour lui’ invites compassion and prayers.

Elie Louis Joliclere’s grave is outside the north wall, on the left after you come up the drangway from Mumbles Road.

Kate Jones, October 2019.

Acknowledgements: Inquest into the death of Elie Louis Joliclere, 6 June 1873 and Thistleboon Academy prospectus, 1870, both in West Glamorgan Archive; Thistleboon House School 1841-1894, Wendy Cope, Gower, 1995; drawing of Thistleboon House in the 1860s, unknown artist, Oystermouth Historical Association Archive;’ The Lure of Laudanum’, Claire Cock-Starkley, 2016, published on-line, accessed 19.10.19; tincture of opium bottle, the British Library; Elie Joliclere’s grave photograph by Kate Jones.