Elizabeth Edgecombe

**Elizabeth Edgecombe** (3 October, 1959 - 21 July, 1975) was a half-blood English witch who began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on 1 September, 1971. She a member of Ravenclaw House and was in the same year as the Marauders. She was the daughter of Nigel Edgecombe and his wife, Jane.

She became a casualty of the First Wizarding War during the summer of 1975 while attending a Falmouth Falcons vs. Ballycastle Bats Quidditch Match on 21 July. Death Eaters caused an explosion as witches and wizards were leaving the stadium, and the ensuing panic and chaos caused a stampede which killed Elizabeth and her friend Clara Bonham. Elizabeth was attending the match with the Bonham family when the explosion occurred.

## Biography

### Early life

Elizabeth Edgecombe was born on 3 October, 1959, in Thatcham, Berkshire, England. Her father, Nigel Edgecombe, worked for the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Transportation, and her mother, Jane Edgecombe, stayed at home. Elizabeth grew up with no idea of her true maternal grandparents: her mother, Jane, had been adopted by muggles, and muggle raised, although it is possible that Jane could have been given up by a wizarding family. Therefore, Elizabeth considered herself a half-blood. She was an only child.

#### Family

She was the niece of Enid Fawley (née Edgecombe) and her husband Clement, and she had two first cousins, Geoffrey and Evaline. Her cousin Geoffrey was a year younger than her and the two were close as children. She had an uncle Leonard as well.

Her paternal grandparents were Philander Edgecombe and Dulcibella Edgecombe (née Goshawk), who lived in Derbyshire with the rest of the Edgecombe family. Elizabeth's mother, Jane, had wanted to move to Thatcham, Berkshire (where Elizabeth was born), to be closer to her ailing muggle parents, who had adopted her as an infant. Thatcham is an historic market town in the county of Berkshire, England, centred 3 miles east of Newbury, 14 miles west of Reading and 54 miles west of London.

### Hogwarts years

Elizabeth Edgecombe received her Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1971, the same year as the "Marauders." Before attending, she purchased her wand, which was made of hornbeam and unicorn hair, from Ollivander's in Diagon Alley. On 1 September, 1971, at the age of eleven, she left home, boarded the Hogwarts Express, and later that evening, she was sorted into Ravenclaw.

#### First year (1971-1972)

During her first year of school, Elizabeth befriended Clara Bonham, a Ravenclaw student from the year above her. Both were equally disappointed with the dorm-mates they received: Clara disliked Sybill Trelawney, who had attempted to befriend her many times. Elizabeth disliked both Trelawney *and* Victoria Chamberlain, and thus their friendship was born.

#### Second year (1972-1973)

Elizabeth joined the Charms Club with her friend Clara in the autumn of 1972. The Charms Club was a recreational club at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for students interested in Charms. Students would meet weekly and the club also functioned as a tutoring system for younger students.

#### Third year (1973-1974)

Before her third year started, Elizabeth signed up for Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes, aiming to stay as far away from Divination as possible, in order to avoid her friend Clara's dorm-mate, Sybill.

#### Fourth year (1974-1975)

Elizabeth fell victim to a trick orchestrated by the Marauders sometime during this year. She passed her fourth-year exams and returned home to Thatcham, Berkshire, at the end of the school year.

### Summer of 1975

Elizabeth was invited to her friend Clara's house in Falmouth on 21 July, 1975, and their original plan was to attend the Falmouth Falcons Quidditch match before having a sleepover that night. However, that never came to pass.

#### Attack at Falmouth Stadium (1975)

The Bonhams became victims of the initial Death Eater explosion which rocked the Quidditch pitch in Falmouth, Cornwall, following the end of the Falmouth Falcons vs. Ballycastle Bats match. Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth, as well as her friend Clara, aged sixteen, and Clara's brother Alban, aged fourteen, were caught in the blast with Clara and Alban's parents, Chester Bonham, aged 38, and Agatha Bonham (née Hargrave), aged 38, as well as Walden Hargrave, Elizabeth's friend Clara's uncle, who was 42.

#### Death

All six of them died in either the explosion or the resulting stampede because of the panic. Fourteen other people apart from the Bonham party also perished. Elizabeth's parents were notified in the evening of 22 July, which was the following day, as it took about that long to formally identify the Bonhams. Elizabeth, who had been travelling with them, had already been reported missing by her father, Nigel, earlier that day.

#### Post-mortem

Elizabeth's parents were naturally devastated by her passing. She had been their only child. Elizabeth's uncle, Leonard Edgecombe, gave his daughter, Marietta, the middle name Elizabeth in 1979, four years after her passing. Elizabeth's father, Nigel, was honoured by his brother's choice to remember his daughter in this way.

Elizabeth and the other victims of the Falmouth Stadium explosion were honoured in a memorial which now stands at the entrance to the new Falmouth Stadium, which was torn down in 1985.

## Etymology

The name Elizabeth means "God is my oath." Among Christians, this name was originally more common in Eastern Europe. It was borne in the 12th century by Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, a daughter of King Andrew II who used her wealth to help the poor. In medieval England it was occasionally used in honour of the saint, though the form *Isabel* (from Occitan and Spanish) was more common. It has been very popular in England since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.

The Edgecombe name is derived from their residence "at the edge of the valley". The surname Edgecombe originally derived from the Old English word Eggcombe. The surname was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree.