The Singing Detective
From professional singer and mistress of a circus proprietor, to suffragist female detective - Margaret Cooke certainly had an interesting life
A lesser known female detective in the early 20th century was Margaret Cooke. In 1914, she appeared in court, suing another woman for ‘professional services’. The other woman was Marie Toulman, also known as Baroness de Wetzel. Toulman had sought to engage Margaret’s services in order to negotiate with financiers in order to obtain a loan for £550. Margaret charged her £31 for her services, but Toulman was not happy with the results, and refused to pay. In court, the two agreed that Toulman would pay Margaret £20. The case gained publicity because Cook allegedly had correspondence that involved an MP and other ‘well known’ people.
So who was Margaret Cooke? She was born Margaret Alice Braithwaite in 1866. She was Liverpudlian, and the sixth of seven children. Her father, William, worked variously as a cotton worker, publican and accountant in Liverpool, before changing career and becoming a professional comedian, working under the name of Walter Barton. Her mother, Laura, was American-born, and died in 1883, aged 48. In 1881, 14-year-old Margaret - who was known to her family as Maggie - was a scholar, but six years later, she started her career on the stage. She also chose a professional name - Mab Barton. MAB were her initials, and Barton was her father’s stage name.
An advert for Mab Barton in the North Cumberland Reformer, 22 October 1891
Mab Barton was what was known as a siffleuse - a whistling singer. She had a successful career until 1893, when mentions of her silence (albeit for a single reference in 1897). At some point around the middle of this decade, she formed a relationship with circus proprietor and trapeze artist Alfred Cooke, known as ‘the Marvellous Eugene’ (according to online sources). Cooke was 21 years her senior - and also married. Although Margaret would claim that he was her husband, and took his surname in private life, she could not have legally been married to him.
An advert promoting Alfred Cooke’s appearance as ‘the Marvellous Eugene’ at Bradford (Bradford Observer, 22 December 1868, via British Newspaper Archive)
However, in the autumn of 1896, she gave birth to his daughter, who she named Olga Mabena Alexandra Cooke. Mabena, of course, was a play on her professional name of Mab. How long her relationship with Olga’s father lasted for is not known; he had already had at least three children by his first two wives, and remained married to the second until his death in 1900, when his widow placed a loving notice in the newspapers.
In the same year as Alfred Cooke’s death, Mab’s beloved father William also died, aged 69. She now placed a notice in The Era - the theatrical newspaper - which demonstrated her deep love for her father and included a Shakespearean quote regarding his ‘goodness’.
Margaret is missing from the 1901 census, but in 1911, she emerges in London, where she is now working as a private detective. She is a single mother, living with her daughter Olga, who is now at school. She evidently worked as a detective for at least three years, before ending this career. By 1939, she was a bedridden invalid, being looked after by Olga, and she died three years later in Epsom, aged 75. Despite never marrying her daughter’s father, she remained a Cooke until her death.
You can read more about Margaret in my book, Sister Sleuths, a history of female private detectives.