Gran’s dad and grandad took lives 60 years earlier
BY RECORD REPORTER reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk
ROCK star Kurt Cobain’s suicide could be explained by the tragic past of his Scottish ancestors, a family history expert believes.
The 27-year-old Nirvana frontman shocked the world of music when he took his own life on April 5, 1994.
It has now been discovered that his Borders-born great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather died within months of each other as a result of suicide bids 60 years earlier.
Great-grandad James William Irving, from Hawick, Roxburghshire, died in a psychiatric hospital in Washington state in June 1934.
Public records show he had attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the abdomen in front of his family, including his daughter Peggy, Cobain’s gran.
Born on June 24, 1888, James emigrated to the US in 1909 with his sisters Janet, Grace and Maggie, dad William and mum Mary Anne.
James is listed in the 1930 US census as working as a machinist in a blacksmith’s, living in a house in Aberdeen, Washington, with wife Ada Dawson and with Peggy and her sister Irene and brother Donald.
The reasons behind his attempted suicide are unknown but the events came months after James’s father, William, who was also from Hawick, died in February 1934, aged 69.
Records do not reveal his cause of death but they show it took place at Niagara Falls – a suicide hotspot.
Following his suicide attempt, James was admitted to Western Washington Hospital for the Insane where he died two months later after ripping open his wounds.
Researcher Craig Williams, who discovered the family story, said: “Kurt Cobain is rightly remembered as one of the most influential and talented rock musicians in history.
“Many fans placed the blame of his death on his unwanted superstardom and the pressures of fame in the wake of Nirvana finding worldwide mainstream success.
“However, might previous familial patterns of suicide be behind his decision to take his own life?
“Could the family’s difficulties be traced to the death of his Scottishborn great-grandfather – and greatgreat-grandfather – back in 1934?”
Experts agree that family history could have strongly influenced Cobain’s mental health.
Dr Rona J Strawbridge of Glasgow University is an expert in mental illness and suicidal behaviour.
She said: “I can confirm that there is strong evidence of inherited risk.
“Suicidal behaviour is complex, with family history acting with other factors – including mental illness, substance abuse, personality type and stressful life events – in ways we don’t fully understand.”
It echoes comments made by Cobain’s cousin, Bethany, a nurse who specialises in mental health.
She said a combination of factors such as drug addiction, alcohol, violence and childhood trauma, as well as untreated bipolar disorder, contributed to his death.
She also said that suicides of family members pointed to an inherited mental health condition.