General view of the Greek cemetery in Kolkata,
showing the
tombstone of Byron Cossanteli.
©
Liz Chater 2025
As part of my ongoing project to photograph all the Armenian graves and tombstones in India, I took some time to photograph the same in the Greek Cemetery in Kolkata when I was there in 2017. This cemetery also contains some Armenian memorials, so it dove-tailed nicely with my Armenian graves project. The Greek cemetery is very small, holding just over 100 readable tombstones, with several more weather-worn and un-decipherable. Some have been easier than others to get translated or decipher. The harder ones, I put to one side to do at another time.
One of those in the ‘mañana pile’ was this tombstone. Rather sad and forlorn, tucked in amongst all the other rather aging stones was one of simplicity itself. There’s nothing about it that tells the on-looker of the man beneath it. The lead-lettering has long disappeared and what is left are just the indentations made by the stonemason when he was inserting the details of the deceased onto the marble cross. From this decayed memorial comes the following story. Pulled together from available public records, it is by no means a complete account, but if what I have done here, helps others with their own research into their Greek family history with Scottish connections in India, then I am simply happy to help.
This story is about a tombstone that caught my eye for its ragged plainness. Byron Cossanteli, Greek Consul died in Calcutta, 1926. His grave in the 'barely there' Greek Cemetery is simplicity itself. He was only in Calcutta for a fleeting moment, yet his children and their descendants prove to be anything but conventional.
But first, the story starts in Scotland, a very long way from India or Greece.
I would imagine that Katherine was in India perhaps as a companion or helper for her half-sister, Agnes nee Spence, who was married to Napoleon Monnier. Agnes and Napoleon had married in Edinburgh in June 1891,[1] he was a 19 year old medical student studying at the university, she was 22 years of age. It was a shotgun wedding; Agnes was 4 months pregnant and had her first child in Scotland in November 1891, a girl they named Gladys.[2] Their next child, a boy called Eugene was born in September 1892 in Madhapur, India.[3] Another boy, Gordon Edward was born in July 1895 in Calcutta,[4] but both Eugene and Gordon were to die within 2 days of each other in October 1895. Baby Gordon succumbed first on the 7th October and two days later, Eugene also died; both of diarrhoea.[5] Emile William Lamb Monnier came along in September 1893 and Ivy Aileen Spence Monnier in September 1899.
Agnes and Katherine shared the same father, but different mothers. Agnes had been born in 1869[6] to William Spence (a commercial traveller and upholsterer) and Jessie nee Locke. William and Jessie had married in July 1863 in Edinburgh.[7]
William Spence and Jessie nee Locke had the following children:
William Locke Spence – 1865-1866
Jane Morton Rankin Spence – 1866-1930
Agnes Margaret (sometimes referred to as Marguerite) Spence – 1869-1902
John Spence – 1870-1870
While Jessie was still alive, William had set up home with Jane Morton Locke and the earliest recorded birth from this relationship was William Robert Locke Spence, born illegitimate in 1875. Katherine Adelaide Spence (also illegitimate) was born in 1881.
Katherine and 5 of her siblings were recorded as born illegitimate (see Scottish birth records), to William Spence and Jane Morton Locke. They were:
William Robert Locke Spence 1875-1954, illegitimate. [awarded a C.B.E., and was the General Secretary of the Maritime Union of Seamen]
Minnie Campbell Spence – 1877-1877, illegitimate.
John Spence – 1878, illegitimate.
Stanley Hunton Spence – 1879-1924, illegitimate.
Katherine Adelaide Spence – 1881-1962, illegitimate.
Nora Annie Spence – 1883-1885, illegitimate.
Gladys Griffiths Spence – 1888-1962
Aubrey Spence – 1889-1936
Ivy Eileen Spence – 1892-1972
William and Jane Morton Locke did eventually marry in May 1887[8], but only after his wife Jessie had died just a month earlier.
KATHERINE’S BIRTH RECORD
Her half sister, Agnes died in July 1902 in Calcutta of cellulitis[9] and by April 1903, Agnes’s widower husband Napoleon, now an established medical doctor in India, had married Agnes’s half-sister Katherine, again in Calcutta.[10] Napoleon was clearly a very red-blooded young man, because, just like Agnes when she had married him, Katherine was also 4 months pregnant at the time of the wedding.
As if losing a sister, and taking on her children wasn't enough to contend with, Katherine was present and watching when her new husband Napoleon drowned whilst swimming in a tank [large reservoir] with a friend, the friend survived. This tragedy coming in June 1903 only three months after her marriage to him, there is no doubt that Katherine, who was by now 6 months pregnant, would have been severely traumatised as she watched helplessly from the edge of the water as her husband struggled and called out for help. She attempted to go into the tank to try and save him, but was held back, and sadly, it seems, although efforts were made to reach him, they were only half hearted. It took a professional diver, employed at Calcutta docks to swim in the tank to find him. Napoleon's body was recovered many hours later in the middle of the night. It is difficult to imagine the sadness, sorrow and despair Katherine would have felt at the loss of her new husband; the father of her step-children who were also her half nieces and nephews as well as the father of her unborn child. The family’s grief would have been devastating. Within a year, she had lost her sister and a husband and had gone from having no children to having to care for four as a widow and a single parent. Her baby was born in September 1903 in Calcutta and named Rudolph Scipio Monnier.[11]
The fishing grounds of Calcutta were well stocked, and like many widowed young women in India, Katherine would have been very eager to find a husband. She was a long way from home, with no known family or financial support to fall back on, and she had 4 young mouths to feed; needs must when the devil drives. By January 1904 she had fished, hooked, and had married Byron Cossanteli.[12]
Briish Library: N11-10A-400-29
He was a popular and successful Greek merchant and also the Greek Consul-General in Calcutta. She and Byron went on to have three of their own children. Presumably he also provided for the three step-children Katherine took on after her sister's death, as well as the young Rudolph born after Napoleon’s death. Byron appears to have been incredibly kind, intuitive and fully embracing step-fatherhood. With his commitment to Katherine he inherited a complex family dynamic. Meanwhile, Katherine slipped into a more contented period in her life, enjoying the benefits of a busy social scene and travel that a Consul-General's wife was expected to have.
FAMILYTREE OF BYRON AND KATHERINE
AND NAPOLEON AND KATHERINE
Byron and Katherine's first child, a girl called Theans was born in 1905 in Calcutta and was baptised in the Greek Church in the city in 1906.[13] Their second child, a boy called Leonidas, was born in Calcutta in 1910, again baptised in the Greek church[14] and their third child, a girl called Ecaterini was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1919,[15] Katherine's home town. Byron was present at the birth of Ecaterini which he registered at the end of September that year.
How his death was reported in the local Calcutta newspaper.
Unexpected bereavement and grief came knocking on Katherine’s door again in 1926 whilst she was on a trip to Switzerland with her two daughters, their son Leonidas was in England studying. Her husband Byron was suddenly taken ill in Calcutta and died on the 22nd November 1926.[16] He was just 45 years of age.
The neglected and forlorn grave of Byron Cossanteli, Greek
businessman and proprietor of Cossanteli & Co., import/export merchants in
Calcutta and Marseille, as well as Greek Consul to India.
Image ©Liz Chater 2025
He had come to Calcutta around 1902, and like many Greek nationals, started his business life with the well-known and established company of Ralli Brothers. Later, he and his brother Georges started an import/export business, Georges ran the business in Marseille, while Byron looked after their interests in India. He traded from Mission Row, Calcutta as merchants and commission agents and they also had a foot in Hankow, China with offices at 10 Rue Dautremer,[17] and later 38 Poyang Road.[18] After Byron’s death, his brother continued to run the business from Marseille.
In the late 1920’s widowed Katherine can next be found living in Harrogate in Yorkshire[19], presumably wishing to be close to where her children were being educated. When she married Byron in 1904 she took on his Greek nationality. However, in September 1930 Katherine applied for re-admission as a British subject through naturalisation[20] and later in 1934 she took steps to officially change her name from Cossanteli to Cole via Deed Poll[21]. Included in the notice was her daughter Ecaterini. On a separate Deed Poll notice on the same date, her son Leonidas Cossanteli also declared he was changing his name to Cole. Katherine and two of her children were shaking off their Greek connections.
In June 1939 Katherine Cole (was Cossanteli, nee Spence) married for the 3rd time to James Moir at the Registry Office in Hampstead, London[22]. He was a bachelor she was a widow. The marriage certificate confirms her father as William Robert Spence a furniture manufacturer, she gave an incorrect age on the marriage certificate as 48, when in fact she was 57. James was 46, Katherine may not have wanted him to know her real age. One of the witnesses was her brother, Leonidas Cole.
Even though she had inherited a reasonable estate from Byron in 1926, she died in May 1962 in Cornwall leaving a very modest estate of £2,650[23]. The illegitimate daughter of furniture upholsterer William Spence and his companion Jane Locke had led a complex and extraordinary life, encompassing tragedy and joy, enduring unbearable loss but finding contentment. Every sinew of her body challenged when caring for her orphaned step-children and her own children at the loss of her husbands and their fathers. Cornwall was a long way from Scotland and Calcutta, but in the latter part of her life it was a calm and peaceful place to see out her days.
In 1938, aged only 19, Ecaterini married Albert George Jiggins. Their first child was born later the same year. By 1941 Ecaterini had a second, with an unnamed man, also a son whom she named Gary. According to Garry, it seems Ecaterini abandoned him and he was left with an elderly couple from Leighton Buzzard who eventually adopted him. Gary became an illustrator and was well known around Leighton Buzzard, particularly because he illustrated a book and album covers for showbiz legends The Barron Knights.
Acknowledgement: Harley St Auctions. ILLUSTRATIONS BY GARY RAPHAEL AKA GARYPANTLING were placed at auction here.
Gary suffered a stroke in 1991 following a routine varicose vein operation that went wrong. Six more strokes followed which seriously affected his speech, Gary found himself confined to his bungalow. In 1997, having discovered his grandfather had been a Greek Consul in India, he launched a nation-wide appeal. He had an article published in Parikiaki a newspaper of the Cypriot community in Britain, and his local paper in Leighton Buzzard also published it in the hope he could connect with his lost blood family. Such was his distance from his mother Ecaterini, he said: “I am desperate to know if I have any brothers, sisters, uncles or aunts…” [24]. It’s unknown if he was successful in finding his Cossanteli cousins, but it is unlikely he knew that his mother’s brother, Leonidas, was Regional Manager of the Ottoman Bank in Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, Cyprus and East Africa in the 1960s. By 1964 Leonidas had been appointed Hong Kong’s first Commissioner of Banking[25]. Whilst stationed in Iraq, Leonidas had married Gertrude Victoria Warre Yeats-Brown, they went on to have three daughters, unknown cousins to Gary who was completely oblivious to his uncle’s banking career and his Cossanteli cousins.
Meanwhile, Gary’s mother Ecaterini married for a 2nd time on the 5th August 1944 at the Registry Office in Taunton, Somerset by license to David Leonard Olds[26], who was originally from New Zealand. She stated she was a widow, but in fact her legal husband Albert George Jiggins was alive, and didn’t pass away until 1988. There is currently no evidence of a divorce taking place between him and Ecaterini, and that would suggest she had committed bigamy. Her occupation was noted as a cashier at the New Zealand Club, and this is very likely where she met David.
On the 21st August 1944 David was Killed whilst flying. The plane he was in stalled and crashed into the Bristol Channel southwest of Clevedon, Somerset soon after taking off on a flying instruction training flight, based out of HMS Blackcap. He died with another, Lt. Alfred John Hunt. Ecaterini and David had been married just 16 days. His body washed up on the foreshore at Clevedon on 1st September[27], his remains were buried at Yeovilton Churchyard R.N.A.S. Extension, Row D. Grave 4.
Ecaterini quietly sidestepped her marriage to David reverting to her Jiggins name after his death. By October 1946 Ecaterini changed her name officially by Deed Poll from Ecaterini Theano OLDS to BRENNAN[28]. (Although she doesn’t appear to have changed it for voting registers, and can be found in 1947 and 1948 still listed as Jiggins).
In 1974 she married Richard Andrew Brennan with whom she lived with until his death in 1988. At this point it is not clear if she and Albert Jiggins had ever finalised a divorce, the legalities of this would need to be explored further and it is not something I have extended my research into. Be that as it may, Ecaterini died in 1992 in Bexhill-on-Sea possessed of an estate around £397,000[29]. She left legacies to two Jiggins grandchildren by her eldest son, as well as legacies to him, his wife and Ecaterini’s nieces (daughters of her brother Leonidas Cossanteli). There was no mention of her other son Gary and I would think it very unlikely they were ever reunited.
Gary died in Milton Keynes Hospital in 2011, of pneumonia, diabetes and multiple cardiovascular attacks.[30] He had been living in a nursing home prior to his passing away and, rather sadly, it was a staff member of Milton Keynes Council who was the informant and the council arranged his funeral, suggesting he had no known family to help with arrangements. There is a Legacy page on this link for anyone wishing to leave a message.
 |
| In 1997 Gary looked for relations. This is everyone I've found so far. He would have been so happy to know he had family |
Once again invoking the Deed Poll system; this time Gertrude, wife of Leonidas chose to revert back to her married name Cossanteli from Cole in October 1977 she also included one of her daughters in the same notice[31]. Leonidas appears to have organically reverted to his birth name (from Cole back to Cossanteli) during the course of his life but whilst working in Hong Kong he was known as Leonidas Cole. At the time of his death in 2002 in Guernsey, Channel Islands, he was referred to as Leo Cossanteli[32]. Gertrude (Trudie) died in Guernsey at the Blanchelande Nursing Home on the 20th September 2021 aged 100.
From one simple, almost unreadable grave stone of Byron Cossanteli, found in a ‘barely there’ Greek cemetery in Kolkata, this complex family history story has been uncovered. Far from complete, there is still much more available to look into, such as Byron’s brother and his family in France but I happily leave the India connection here for those who are interested, and I hope this provides a springboard for anyone searching their Greek and Scottish ancestors connected to India, in particular anyone who has an interest in the Cossanteli name and their family history.
©Liz Chater 2025
[1] Statutory Registers marriages 685/5 236
[2] Statutory Registers births 685/5 1310
[3] India Office Records
[4] India Office Records
[5] India Office Records
[6] Statutory Registers births 692/2 403
[7] Statutory Registers marriages 685/5 183
[8] Statutory Registers marriages 644/7 173
[9] BL n1-305-86 burial record
[10] BL n11-10A-163-4 marriage record
[11] Rudolph’s naturalisation application states his full date of birth
[12] BL n11-10A-400-29 marriage record
[13] BL n1-332-12 baptism record
[14] BL n1-410A-4 baptism record
[15] Statutory registers birth 685/1 624
[16] Grave and newspaper obituary
[17] Rosenstock’s Gazetteer and Commercial Directory of China
[18] The Directory and Chronicle of China, Japan and Corea
[19] West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
[20] Britain, Naturalisations 1844-1990, National Archives, Kew, HO 334/113/18752,
[21] London Gazette
[22] Marriage certificate
[24] Leighton Buzzard Observer 20th November 1997
[25] The Times 20th March 1964
[26] England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
[27] Death certificate
[28] London Gazette
[29] England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
[30] Death certificate
[31] London Gazette
[32] The Daily Telegraph 9th January 2002
