Partner James Welldon
Queer Places:
Bow Cemetery, Elvet Hill Rd, Durham DH1 3TU, United Kingdom
Edward Hudson Perkins (1858 - November 9, 1932) was born in 1858. Throughout his adult life, he shared a household for nearly fifty years with James Edward Cowell Welldon
(J. E. C. Welldon), a prominent clergyman, academic, and the Dean of Durham. Perkins served as Welldon’s close male companion,
faithful friend, and manservant (or butler).
Perkins and Welldon's living arrangement exemplified a common pattern among Victorian and Edwardian bachelors, academics, and clergymen. This long-term domestic structure provided a socially acceptable framework for men whose primary emotional and domestic bonds were shared with other men during an era when formal same-sex relationships were legally and socially constrained.
Perkins passed away on November 9, 1932, at the age of 74. His death deeply devastated Welldon, who outlived him by several years before dying in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1937 at the age of eighty-three.
Perkins was laid to rest, and his headstone stands as a lasting historical testament to their decades-long partnership.
Transcription of the Perkins Tombstone
> IN MEMORY OF
> EDWARD HUDSON PERKINS
> WHO DIED ON
> NOVEMBER 9^TH 1932
> AGED 74 YEARS,
> HAVING BEEN FOR FORTY NINE
> YEARS AND SEVEN MONTHS
> THE FAITHFUL FRIEND
> AND BUTLER OF
> J. E. C. WELLDON, D. D.
> DEAN OF DURHAM.
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