War heroes defy enemy... then die at Epsom
GEORGE Pelham escaped from TWO sinking ships – but then died at Epsom.
He worked in the engine room of the coal-fired Titanic (inset) and escaped in Lifeboat 16 after the liner hit an iceberg in 1912. George joined the Navy and survived again when his ship was hit by a torpedo. Traumatised, he later had a breakdown and was admitted to Horton Hospital in 1935. He died in 1939.
Mark Skull left Wiltshire for London in the 1880s. He and wife Louisa adopted a niece when his brother died. In 1895 they had their own son, James. The niece was 13 and became insanely jealous. She poisoned the tot by putting chloroform in his feeding bottle.
She was sent away, the Skulls split up and Mark had a breakdown. He was sent to Long Grove hospital and died in 1915 aged 58. Polish prisoner of war Lt Josef Krzyzowski escaped Russian captors in 1939 and was evacuated to the UK. Posted to Scotland, he married and had a son in 1941. But Josef suffered PTSD and was admitted to Long Grove hospital. He died in 1948, aged 35. Felix Garcia was a Spanish dancer who was sketched by Picasso. He collaborated with Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev and Picasso on an avant-garde ballet, the Three-Cornered Hat, which premiered in London’s Alhambra Theatre in 1919.
Felix lost his mind after being replaced in the lead role. He was arrested after dancing naked on the altar of a London church, taken to a workhouse, then committed to Long Grove with insanity and schizophrenia.
He died two decades later in 1941.