Druitt and the Civil Service

[m_w_r]

When they both lived in Blackheath was it at the same time,does anyone know?

Natalie,

They are actually both living in the same enumeration district (and in the same parish) in the 1881 census, Druitt at Valentine's School in Eliot Place, and Cook with his mother and siblings at 11 Lansdowne Place.

Regards,

Mark

[Natalie Severn]

Mark,
This is getting very interesting indeed!
thanks again for all this.

[m_w_r]

Can't find him (Cook) in 1891 ...

1891 Census:
6 Tavistock Square, St Pancras, London:

Edward T Cook, head, m, 33, journalist, b. Brighton, Sussex
Emily C Cook, wife, m, 34, b. Middlesex
(+ 3 servants)

Edward Tyas Cook m. Emily Constance Baird, Hampstead, 1884q1

With reference to the change of profession, see for example his Wikipedia page.

Regards,

Mark

[aspallek]

Thanks, Mark. Pretty neat accomplishent to beat Chris to the census draw!

Tavistock Square? That explains the Russell Square address in 1899. So I wonder where he was in 1888...

Ed- Presumably moved out after he married in 1884 (didn't notice that above).

Where was Lansdowne Place? Can't find it on contemporary maps. I note that at 13 Lansdown Place was the "Blackheath Hill School of Art" so I presume it was at/near Blackheath Hill, i.e. just a bit to the east of Eliot Place, a few minutes' walk?

[Natalie Severn]

As Cook wrote the biography of Ruskin,it probably means he was at some point very radical indeed-the Stead background adds to that.Ruskin founded the first Oxford College for the education of ordinary working men who would not normally have had access to such a place as an Oxford College.To this day it concerns itself with the same sort of programmes .
Natalie

[Chris Scott]

Hi Andy
There is a Lansdowne Place in Bermondsey, near the Elephant and Castle (SE1)
Is that the one?
Chris

[Chris Scott]

Here is Cook's obit from the New York Times (2 Oct 1919)

[Chris Scott]

There was a biography of Cook written in 1921:
MILLS, J. Saxon (John Saxon), 1862-1929 : SIR EDWARD COOK K.B.E. : A BIOGRAPHY.

London : Constable & Co., (1921). First edition. A biography of Sir Edward Tyas Cook (1857-1919), the distinguished journalist - and himself the biographer of Ruskin, Florence Nightingale, and Delane of the Times.

[Chris Scott]

The following book:
Story of the Pall Mall Gazette, of Its First Editor Frederick Greenwood and of Its Founder George Murray Smith: Of Its First Editor Frederick Greenwood and of Its Founder George Murray Smith
Book by Frederick Greenwood, John William Robertson Scott; Oxford University Press, 1950. 470 pgs.


is available online at

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&docId=10891234

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Chris,
will read some of that tomorrow---many thanks
Norma

[Chris Scott]

Hi Norma
Hope its of use
the following caught my eye - it was auctioned at Sotheby's in July 2006

[aspallek]

Hi Chris,

This Lansdowne Place was in Lewisham. I just found it on the Booth map. It was very near the intersection of Blackhill Hill Rd. and Lewisham Rd., just a few minutes' walk from Valentine's school. I'll try to post some further images later to give a better perspective.



It would appear likely that Cook lived there until he married in 1884, overlapping Druitt's stay at Eliot Place by several years. I wonder if Cook was a cricketer.

[aspallek]

Perspective showing Lansdowne Place (blue), no. 9 Eliot Place (red), and for good measure no. 5 Eliot Cottages (John Henry Lonsdale -- Green):



Probably nothing to do with anything but there was a bit of Ripper-related graffiti found near Blackheath Hill Railway Station, near Lansdown Place in 1888.

Disclaimer: I'm 99% sure that is Lansdown Place but the writing is very small. It is indeed where Booth's written description says it should be.

[Mayerling]

John R
You asked about Edward Tyas Cook. Im adding below his obit from the Times (2 October 1919) The same educational background as MJD - also he came from Blackheath
Hope this helps
Chris

Hi all,

I hope you don't mind my pointing this out, but you all overlooked (as far as I could see) Sir Edward's wife (who died in 1903). The clipping fromt he Times obituary said his wife was the sister of H.B.Irving.

What does this signify?

H. B. Irving was the oldest son of the actor Sir Henry Irving, Victorian England's greatest stage star. He was a practicing actor, but he became a barrister - and more important, a leading criminal historian of his age. He wrote such books as A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS, which are still very interesting to read. Irving also edited some volumes of the NOTABLE BRITISH TRIAL SERIES. He also was (with Arthur Diosy - remember him? - and Arthur Conan Doyle) a founding member of the OUR SOCIETY, the elite club of true crime enthusiasts.

I find it fascinating that Cook would be related by marriage to such a very interesting figure. Now I wonder if H. B. Irving ever wrote anything regarding Jack the Ripper!

Best wishes,

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Goldwin Smith

I have a 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica - there is a two column
long biography of the Professor in volume 25 on page 262. It is extremely long to retype - but it does point out that Goldwin Smith was closer (in his own views) to the Liberal politician John Bright than to William Gladstone (as said before they split on Home Rule). Bright died in 1889. Goldwin Smith was teaching English and Constitutional Law at Cornell University in upstate New York in 1868, and one of his books was THE UNITED STATES: AN OUTLINE OF POLITICAL HISTORY (1893). He did not have much use for Irish Home Rule, but felt that Canada would eventually join together with the United States to dominate the North American Continent. However there is an unsettling effect in his writing - he favored the control of the globe by the Anglo - Saxon race. He really thought the British Raj in India was a noble undertaking. These views were not unusual in 19th Century Britain or it's empire - look at the views of his contemporary Cecil Rhodes, who hoped that America would one day rejoin the British Empire. [As a matter of fact, in the late 1870s, Goldwin Smith had another target that he kept making nasty little comments about. According to Robert Blake in his biography DISRAELI, Goldwin Smith never could get into a discussioin of the Tory Prime Minister without referring to his ancestry. ]

If you recall Monty had a Liberal Party bent in his school days (according to Tom Cullen), and also spoke out against Bismarck's control of Germany (the Tories under Disraeli were friendlier to Bismarck than Gladstone and his Liberals). Monty may have shared some of Goldwin Smith's views. Hopefully not the latter's views of the laboring classes. This quote is from the Encyclopedia Britannica article:

" His fear was that England would become a nation of factory-workers, thinking more of their trade-union than of their country. These forbodings were intensified in his COMMONWEALTH OR EMPIRE? (1902) - a warning to the United States against the assumption of imperial responsibilities. Among other causes that he powerfully attacked were liquor prohibition, women suffrage and State Socialism."

He sounds like he became really ultra-conservative.

Jeff