Mother of actor Richard Burton. Born Edith Maud Thomas, in Llangffelach, South Wales, a small village located just ten miles from Pontrhydyfen, on the 28th of January 1883.
Edith Maud was the eldest daughter of a respectable, middle-class Methodist Welsh family. Her father Harry, originally a miner, was later to rise up the ladder to become a significant member of the management in a local copper smelting works.
Edith Thomas first met Richard Burton's father when she was employed as a barmaid in The Miners Arms, Pontrhydyfen, and after a courtship lasting well over a year, finally agreed to marry Dic Jenkins, against the wishes of her family, on the Christmas Eve of 1900 at Neath Registry Office. Edith was forced to lie about her age on the Marriage Certificate as she was under eighteen at the time and needed her parents permission to marry, obviously something which she knew would never be granted to her.
Edith's story is such a tragic one. Having found out about the illicit marriage, Edith's parents disowned her and for the next twenty-five years she was subjected to the worst kind of treatment possible from her alcoholic, abusive husband. Edith was often left penniless and unable to feed her growing family due to her husband's continual drinking binges, Dick Jenkins often disappearing with the housekeeping money for the public houses of Swansea and Neath for days, sometimes weeks, on end.
David Jenkins, Richard's elder brother, was the only member of the family to write of the few memories he had of his mother. In his biography of Richard, entitled, 'A Brother Remembered' he wrote of Edith saying..."It is tempting to idealize my mother as the pure selfless one, devoted to children and home, and to condemn my father for his self-absorption and gratification, and his humiliation of his family. She rarely, if ever, questioned her total subjugation to the family and devotion to chapel; the idea of her doing something for her own pleasure was quite alien to her".
From the age of eighteen until her death, Edith was to give birth to thirteen children, which included the birth of two daughters, both called Margaret Hannah, who died in infancy. By the time Edith was to give birth to her thirteenth child, Richard Burton's younger brother Graham on the 25th of October 1927, she was physically and emotionally exhausted, mainly due to neglect and poverty. Her final indignity came when Dick Jenkins refused her any money for hospital care when she was diagnosed with septicemia soon after the birth. Edith Jenkins succumbed to the illness just six days later, dying at home on the morning of the 31st of October, 1927. She was just 45 years of age.
David Jenkins was further to recall in his marvelous book, 'A Brother Remembered'..."On the morning of the 31st of October, there was suddenly a frightening atmosphere in the house. I can remember the confused, fearful feelings I had, unable to understand exactly what was going on, certain only of the magnitude of the ill-defined disaster. (Prior to this David Jenkins had sensed that all was not well, his mother had borne for many years, virtually single-handedly, the burden of family responsibility, often going without food herself to be able to feed her children, making her emotionally and physically weak.) The doctor and midwife, my father and Cis were rushing about the house in a state of confused preoccupation. I was the only child in the house that morning. About nine o'clock my father came faltering down the stairs and I realised with mounting horror that he was saying to me, 'Mae dy fam wedi marw..'Your mother has died'.
In a moment of melancholy during an interview in his later years Richard Burton was to recall that;
"Apparently I was a real mother's boy, I went with her everywhere, I hung on to her, but I think the shock must have been so great that when they told me she had gone away and that she wouldn't come back, which I don't remember being told, I never asked for her again. I completely, obviously, cut her out of my two year old mind and I have no recollection of her whatsoever. It must be sleeping there in some dormant part of the brain, but I'm not sure I would like to remember..."
Bio: https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html
Edith Maud was the eldest daughter of a respectable, middle-class Methodist Welsh family. Her father Harry, originally a miner, was later to rise up the ladder to become a significant member of the management in a local copper smelting works.
Edith Thomas first met Richard Burton's father when she was employed as a barmaid in The Miners Arms, Pontrhydyfen, and after a courtship lasting well over a year, finally agreed to marry Dic Jenkins, against the wishes of her family, on the Christmas Eve of 1900 at Neath Registry Office. Edith was forced to lie about her age on the Marriage Certificate as she was under eighteen at the time and needed her parents permission to marry, obviously something which she knew would never be granted to her.
Edith's story is such a tragic one. Having found out about the illicit marriage, Edith's parents disowned her and for the next twenty-five years she was subjected to the worst kind of treatment possible from her alcoholic, abusive husband. Edith was often left penniless and unable to feed her growing family due to her husband's continual drinking binges, Dick Jenkins often disappearing with the housekeeping money for the public houses of Swansea and Neath for days, sometimes weeks, on end.
David Jenkins, Richard's elder brother, was the only member of the family to write of the few memories he had of his mother. In his biography of Richard, entitled, 'A Brother Remembered' he wrote of Edith saying..."It is tempting to idealize my mother as the pure selfless one, devoted to children and home, and to condemn my father for his self-absorption and gratification, and his humiliation of his family. She rarely, if ever, questioned her total subjugation to the family and devotion to chapel; the idea of her doing something for her own pleasure was quite alien to her".
From the age of eighteen until her death, Edith was to give birth to thirteen children, which included the birth of two daughters, both called Margaret Hannah, who died in infancy. By the time Edith was to give birth to her thirteenth child, Richard Burton's younger brother Graham on the 25th of October 1927, she was physically and emotionally exhausted, mainly due to neglect and poverty. Her final indignity came when Dick Jenkins refused her any money for hospital care when she was diagnosed with septicemia soon after the birth. Edith Jenkins succumbed to the illness just six days later, dying at home on the morning of the 31st of October, 1927. She was just 45 years of age.
David Jenkins was further to recall in his marvelous book, 'A Brother Remembered'..."On the morning of the 31st of October, there was suddenly a frightening atmosphere in the house. I can remember the confused, fearful feelings I had, unable to understand exactly what was going on, certain only of the magnitude of the ill-defined disaster. (Prior to this David Jenkins had sensed that all was not well, his mother had borne for many years, virtually single-handedly, the burden of family responsibility, often going without food herself to be able to feed her children, making her emotionally and physically weak.) The doctor and midwife, my father and Cis were rushing about the house in a state of confused preoccupation. I was the only child in the house that morning. About nine o'clock my father came faltering down the stairs and I realised with mounting horror that he was saying to me, 'Mae dy fam wedi marw..'Your mother has died'.
In a moment of melancholy during an interview in his later years Richard Burton was to recall that;
"Apparently I was a real mother's boy, I went with her everywhere, I hung on to her, but I think the shock must have been so great that when they told me she had gone away and that she wouldn't come back, which I don't remember being told, I never asked for her again. I completely, obviously, cut her out of my two year old mind and I have no recollection of her whatsoever. It must be sleeping there in some dormant part of the brain, but I'm not sure I would like to remember..."
Bio: https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html
Mother of actor Richard Burton. Born Edith Maud Thomas, in Llangffelach, South Wales, a small village located just ten miles from Pontrhydyfen, on the 28th of January 1883.
Edith Maud was the eldest daughter of a respectable, middle-class Methodist Welsh family. Her father Harry, originally a miner, was later to rise up the ladder to become a significant member of the management in a local copper smelting works.
Edith Thomas first met Richard Burton's father when she was employed as a barmaid in The Miners Arms, Pontrhydyfen, and after a courtship lasting well over a year, finally agreed to marry Dic Jenkins, against the wishes of her family, on the Christmas Eve of 1900 at Neath Registry Office. Edith was forced to lie about her age on the Marriage Certificate as she was under eighteen at the time and needed her parents permission to marry, obviously something which she knew would never be granted to her.
Edith's story is such a tragic one. Having found out about the illicit marriage, Edith's parents disowned her and for the next twenty-five years she was subjected to the worst kind of treatment possible from her alcoholic, abusive husband. Edith was often left penniless and unable to feed her growing family due to her husband's continual drinking binges, Dick Jenkins often disappearing with the housekeeping money for the public houses of Swansea and Neath for days, sometimes weeks, on end.
David Jenkins, Richard's elder brother, was the only member of the family to write of the few memories he had of his mother. In his biography of Richard, entitled, 'A Brother Remembered' he wrote of Edith saying..."It is tempting to idealize my mother as the pure selfless one, devoted to children and home, and to condemn my father for his self-absorption and gratification, and his humiliation of his family. She rarely, if ever, questioned her total subjugation to the family and devotion to chapel; the idea of her doing something for her own pleasure was quite alien to her".
From the age of eighteen until her death, Edith was to give birth to thirteen children, which included the birth of two daughters, both called Margaret Hannah, who died in infancy. By the time Edith was to give birth to her thirteenth child, Richard Burton's younger brother Graham on the 25th of October 1927, she was physically and emotionally exhausted, mainly due to neglect and poverty. Her final indignity came when Dick Jenkins refused her any money for hospital care when she was diagnosed with septicemia soon after the birth. Edith Jenkins succumbed to the illness just six days later, dying at home on the morning of the 31st of October, 1927. She was just 45 years of age.
David Jenkins was further to recall in his marvelous book, 'A Brother Remembered'..."On the morning of the 31st of October, there was suddenly a frightening atmosphere in the house. I can remember the confused, fearful feelings I had, unable to understand exactly what was going on, certain only of the magnitude of the ill-defined disaster. (Prior to this David Jenkins had sensed that all was not well, his mother had borne for many years, virtually single-handedly, the burden of family responsibility, often going without food herself to be able to feed her children, making her emotionally and physically weak.) The doctor and midwife, my father and Cis were rushing about the house in a state of confused preoccupation. I was the only child in the house that morning. About nine o'clock my father came faltering down the stairs and I realised with mounting horror that he was saying to me, 'Mae dy fam wedi marw..'Your mother has died'.
In a moment of melancholy during an interview in his later years Richard Burton was to recall that;
"Apparently I was a real mother's boy, I went with her everywhere, I hung on to her, but I think the shock must have been so great that when they told me she had gone away and that she wouldn't come back, which I don't remember being told, I never asked for her again. I completely, obviously, cut her out of my two year old mind and I have no recollection of her whatsoever. It must be sleeping there in some dormant part of the brain, but I'm not sure I would like to remember..."
Bio: https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html
Edith Maud was the eldest daughter of a respectable, middle-class Methodist Welsh family. Her father Harry, originally a miner, was later to rise up the ladder to become a significant member of the management in a local copper smelting works.
Edith Thomas first met Richard Burton's father when she was employed as a barmaid in The Miners Arms, Pontrhydyfen, and after a courtship lasting well over a year, finally agreed to marry Dic Jenkins, against the wishes of her family, on the Christmas Eve of 1900 at Neath Registry Office. Edith was forced to lie about her age on the Marriage Certificate as she was under eighteen at the time and needed her parents permission to marry, obviously something which she knew would never be granted to her.
Edith's story is such a tragic one. Having found out about the illicit marriage, Edith's parents disowned her and for the next twenty-five years she was subjected to the worst kind of treatment possible from her alcoholic, abusive husband. Edith was often left penniless and unable to feed her growing family due to her husband's continual drinking binges, Dick Jenkins often disappearing with the housekeeping money for the public houses of Swansea and Neath for days, sometimes weeks, on end.
David Jenkins, Richard's elder brother, was the only member of the family to write of the few memories he had of his mother. In his biography of Richard, entitled, 'A Brother Remembered' he wrote of Edith saying..."It is tempting to idealize my mother as the pure selfless one, devoted to children and home, and to condemn my father for his self-absorption and gratification, and his humiliation of his family. She rarely, if ever, questioned her total subjugation to the family and devotion to chapel; the idea of her doing something for her own pleasure was quite alien to her".
From the age of eighteen until her death, Edith was to give birth to thirteen children, which included the birth of two daughters, both called Margaret Hannah, who died in infancy. By the time Edith was to give birth to her thirteenth child, Richard Burton's younger brother Graham on the 25th of October 1927, she was physically and emotionally exhausted, mainly due to neglect and poverty. Her final indignity came when Dick Jenkins refused her any money for hospital care when she was diagnosed with septicemia soon after the birth. Edith Jenkins succumbed to the illness just six days later, dying at home on the morning of the 31st of October, 1927. She was just 45 years of age.
David Jenkins was further to recall in his marvelous book, 'A Brother Remembered'..."On the morning of the 31st of October, there was suddenly a frightening atmosphere in the house. I can remember the confused, fearful feelings I had, unable to understand exactly what was going on, certain only of the magnitude of the ill-defined disaster. (Prior to this David Jenkins had sensed that all was not well, his mother had borne for many years, virtually single-handedly, the burden of family responsibility, often going without food herself to be able to feed her children, making her emotionally and physically weak.) The doctor and midwife, my father and Cis were rushing about the house in a state of confused preoccupation. I was the only child in the house that morning. About nine o'clock my father came faltering down the stairs and I realised with mounting horror that he was saying to me, 'Mae dy fam wedi marw..'Your mother has died'.
In a moment of melancholy during an interview in his later years Richard Burton was to recall that;
"Apparently I was a real mother's boy, I went with her everywhere, I hung on to her, but I think the shock must have been so great that when they told me she had gone away and that she wouldn't come back, which I don't remember being told, I never asked for her again. I completely, obviously, cut her out of my two year old mind and I have no recollection of her whatsoever. It must be sleeping there in some dormant part of the brain, but I'm not sure I would like to remember..."
Bio: https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html
