Son of Ruth Ellis, née Neilson, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and a married Canadian soldier.
Ruth's father, Arthur Nelson Hornby, was a Manchester-born cellist who played on transatlantic liners. He changed his surname to Neilson after the death of his infant daughter Marion in 1925 , so Ruth's name was the first of his children to be registered as Nielson. Andy's surname was also registered as Neilson, with his father's name left blank.
Ruth was seventeen when Andy was born. His father sent money for about a year, then stopped. Andy eventually went to live with Ellis's mother, Berta (Elisa Berta Neilson, née Cothals, formerly Goodall, a Belgian refugee) who was, in 1969, found unconscious in a gas-filled room in her flat in Hemel Hempstead. She never fully recovered and did not speak coherently ever again.
This was a most tragic and complex family. Andy's step-father, George Johnston Ellis, who had married Ruth in 1950, was addicted to alcohol and hanged himself in 1958.
Andy had a half-sister, Georgina Jayne Ellis (1951-2001), who was three when her mother was executed. She was adopted when her father hanged himself three years later. She died of cancer aged 50.
In 1971 Ruth's remains were re-interred at Amersham following a re-building programme at Holloway Prison where she had been hanged and buried. Andy is believed to have destroyed the headstone at Amersham in 1982 and it has never been replaced.
Andy, who was ten at the time of his mother's death, suffered irreparable psychological damage and died from an overdose of glutethimide in his bedsit at Flat 3, 21 Sale Place, Paddington. The inquest found it was a case of suicide.
The judge presiding at the trial of his mother, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep. Christmas Humphreys, QC, the prosecution counsel, who had recorded interviews with Andy before his death, for his funeral.
Andy's funeral took place on 28 June 1982 at St John's Chapel, Woking, Surrey, followed by a cremation in Woking Crematorium. His ashes were buried in his mother's unmarked grave at Amersham on 6 July 1982.
Son of Ruth Ellis, née Neilson, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and a married Canadian soldier.
Ruth's father, Arthur Nelson Hornby, was a Manchester-born cellist who played on transatlantic liners. He changed his surname to Neilson after the death of his infant daughter Marion in 1925 , so Ruth's name was the first of his children to be registered as Nielson. Andy's surname was also registered as Neilson, with his father's name left blank.
Ruth was seventeen when Andy was born. His father sent money for about a year, then stopped. Andy eventually went to live with Ellis's mother, Berta (Elisa Berta Neilson, née Cothals, formerly Goodall, a Belgian refugee) who was, in 1969, found unconscious in a gas-filled room in her flat in Hemel Hempstead. She never fully recovered and did not speak coherently ever again.
This was a most tragic and complex family. Andy's step-father, George Johnston Ellis, who had married Ruth in 1950, was addicted to alcohol and hanged himself in 1958.
Andy had a half-sister, Georgina Jayne Ellis (1951-2001), who was three when her mother was executed. She was adopted when her father hanged himself three years later. She died of cancer aged 50.
In 1971 Ruth's remains were re-interred at Amersham following a re-building programme at Holloway Prison where she had been hanged and buried. Andy is believed to have destroyed the headstone at Amersham in 1982 and it has never been replaced.
Andy, who was ten at the time of his mother's death, suffered irreparable psychological damage and died from an overdose of glutethimide in his bedsit at Flat 3, 21 Sale Place, Paddington. The inquest found it was a case of suicide.
The judge presiding at the trial of his mother, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep. Christmas Humphreys, QC, the prosecution counsel, who had recorded interviews with Andy before his death, for his funeral.
Andy's funeral took place on 28 June 1982 at St John's Chapel, Woking, Surrey, followed by a cremation in Woking Crematorium. His ashes were buried in his mother's unmarked grave at Amersham on 6 July 1982.
Gravesite Details
Buried next to the wall, under the now broken stones, with his mother, Ruth Ellis, (neé Hornby: under which name she was relocated.
