Alfred the Gorilla
Alfred died on 10 March 1948. The press at the time speculated that ‘his pet hate got him in the end’, linking Alfred's dislike of aeroplanes with the passage of one over the zoo shortly before his death. The actual cause of his demise was tuberculosis which he contracted a year before and despite his keepers best efforts, he had been unable to recover. His death was mourned by many of the regular visitors to the zoo, some of whom were even inspired to compose poems in his honour.
Alfred Lamert Dickens
Alfred Dickens died at the Mosley Arms Inn in Manchester on 27 July 1860, from pleurisy. His widow, Helen, and their five children were living in Manchester at the time of his death, and Charles went there at once and brought them back with him to London. Alfred was buried at Highgate Cemetery, near to his father John, and then Charles took the family with him to his country home at Gads Hill Place in Kent, finding a farmhouse nearby for them to live in while he found them a home in London. Charles hired Alfred's widow, Helen, to care for and mind his mother, Elizabeth Dickens (died 1863), for the remainder of his mother's life.