Mary Merrick grave (20th November 1836 to 19th May 1873)

Have you watched The Elephant Man, the deeply sad tale of John Merrick who suffered from Proteus Syndrome, a condition that caused his body to grotesquely deform from an early age. Destitute he became a main feature in circus freak show before for a kindly doctor saved him. With repugnant looks it’s difficult to think he was born of a woman but he was - and here I am at his mum’s grave.

Little is known about her but she was 25 and pregnant when she married Joseph, a taxi driver (they’d have three children in total.) Their baby Joseph seemed healthy for his first two years but they must have been alarmed to see a hard tumour form in his mouth and bumps down his left side. Mary sought various medical treatments but without success. Aged five Joseph suffered a crippling injury to his left hip.

Mary showed unfailing gentleness and love to her son teaching him to read and write. She managed the family haberdashery shop, ran the household and care for their three children. Just 27 she died of bronchial pneumonia and is buried here where I’m stood. One of her other sons William is also buried here having died of Scarlet Fever aged four. Her husband and daughter are buried together in a different cemetery.

Joseph never forgot her tenderness and in the show pamphlet about the freak show in which he appeared he wrote of her: "Peace to her, she was a good mother to me." He died in hospital aged 27, his deformities and head growing until the day he died in his asleep in April 1890. His skeleton is on display in Royal London Hospital and other parts of him are buried at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium.

There's a wee plaque by the headstone so tell the observer who lies there but there's no mention of The Elephant Man. This is Mary's family grave but on the plaque I noticed the name "Merrick" and knew only one person with that name. With a little research I deduced this was his mum. What short and unlucky lives they had. I did a salute and left.