Postcard of the Month: August 2024

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Burpham Croft and a Railway Fraud

Burpham Croft was previously known as Elm Croft and was home for three women between the 1850s and 1880s; Miss Charlotte Harrison, Mrs. Jessie Munro and her adopted daughter Eleanora Elwin.

Mrs. Munro was the assumed name of Jessie Redpath, the innocent wife of Leopold Redpath. Redpath, a convicted fraudster, had been found guilty of a massive fraud involving shares of the Great North Railway; a notorious crime of the 1850s for which he had been deported to Australia.

All three women are buried close together in St. Mary's churchyard. Both Charlotte Harrison and Jessie Munro funded stained glass windows in the church, and were well respected in the village.

It would be gratifying to know that these women were the figures seen in the garden in the postcard of Burpham Croft, but they most likely pre-dated the photograph.

Further details of the story can be found in the following sources:

‘The King's Cross Fraudster - Leopold Redpath, his Life and Times’ by David A. Hayes and Marian Kamlish (2013).

‘The Stained Glass of Burpham Church’ by Trevor Cooper (2018).