BRIDAL DRESS AS SHROUD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 49, 22 October 1912, Page 6

BRIDAL DRESS AS SHROUD.

ORANGE BLOSSOMS IN COFFIN. A young bride has boon buried in her wedding dress at Hoxton, and the wedding guests followed her body to the grave in the carriages in which they went to the wedding a few short weeks ago. The bride was Mrs Florence Emily Ridel, aged 23, of Islington. The death of the girl, occurring shortly after her wedding, came as a severe blow to her father, who fearing lest the sight of her wedding dress on future occasions should remind him of his loss, resolved that it should be interred with her. She was married at Whitsuntide to Mr William Ridel, a chef at a Knightsbridge hotel, and after the honeymoon she returned to put her home in order at Islington. While arranging the furniture she received an injury which proved fatal. She attempted to lift a dressingtablo unaided, and the weight, the drawers of the table being heavily laden, caused her to break a blood vessel. Despite every attention her condition became worse, and she was taken so ill at Lavenham, in Suffolk, where she had been sent to recuperate, that she was brought home by the same motor car in which she went to her wedding. Mr Jackson improvised a private mortuary chapel in his office, and here the dead bride, dressed in her wedding clothes, lay in her coffin, which was placed on brass pedestals for a “lying in state.” The walls of the chapel were -draped in black, and lilics-of-tlio-valloy—the bride’s favourite flower—were everywhere. A large cross, composed entirely of lilies, the tribute of her six brothers, covered the whole length of the coffin. Beside her were laid orange blossoms and the bouquet she had on her wedding,day. Her bridal dress was of white satin, and this, with her v;hite shoes,, white, stockings, and whit-e veil, were ,a]l placed in the coffin. Hundreds of pp.qplo visited the office to pay respect to her memory. On the day of the funeral thousands thronged the route to the Abney Park cemetery, where the interment took place, and the traffic was held up for some time. Her coffin was made of the same mahogany of which her furniture was 'constructed, and the men who made the furniture for her room also made the coffin. The fourteen jyodding ((! bfjo^gh^Tijp ( < the .. : .?pjne coachmen and .footmen employed for the wedding formed part of the funeral procession. '