From The Times: July 9, 1924
At the Westminster Coroner’s Court yesterday Mr Ingleby Oddie held an inquiry concerning the death of Sylvia Pearson, 62, wife of Edward Pearson, 84, an old-age pensioner, until lately living in one room at 11 Little Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, W, who died amid squalid surroundings.
Evidence of identification was given by Mrs Edith Kent, the landlady, who stated that the couple had lodged with her for 15 years. They paid 16s a week rent, and the witness found them their Sunday dinner, besides giving them puddings every day. In addition to the old man’s pension they received £3 a month.
Mrs Pearson was very poor, but was a Russian Princess. She was called Princess Orloff. The Coroner: “Did she get letters addressed to her in that name?” “Yes, sir.” When the witness gave the couple food the woman would only open the door just far enough to take it in. The old lady had not been willing to go out for the past five or six weeks.
The old man had not been out for 12 years. The witness thought he was an Englishman, but she had never seen him for 12 years until she went into the bedroom on Friday morning, the door being open a little, an unusual thing. Pearson told her that his wife died at 2.30am. The Princess, she added, had never had her clothes off for 12 years and was practically in rags.
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The Coroner: “You were rather horrified about the state of the room?” “Yes, I have never seen such a dirty one.”
Police-sergeant Nicholls, Coroner’s officer, described his visit to the room, which, he said, was in a filthy condition. There was nothing to show who the woman was except some envelopes addressed “HSH Princess Orloff,” and he gathered that she was known by that name. The only food in the room was an old packet of cocoa and a box of chocolates. There was 9d in money. Mrs Kent had been very kind to the couple. The old man was now in the City of Westminster Infirmary in Fulham Road.
The Coroner, in summing up, said that the woman appeared to have been a Russian aristocrat who had been living in circumstances the details of which were too horrible to describe. How two human beings could live in such conditions was difficult to understand. A verdict of “Death from natural causes” was recorded.
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