Druitt and Monro

[Darryl Kenyon]

As Keith Skinner noted earlier in this thread, Paul Begg was the first to suggest that 30 November was the end of the term, but in saying this Paul B. used the word "seems" and gave no source for this suggestion.

As Keith notes (and I agree) November 30 seems at least two weeks too early for winter break. The Victorians giving their children fully five weeks for a Christmas holiday? It strikes me as very unlikely and I personally couldn't find any evidence that Valentine did such a thing.

Edit: here's the quote, Paul Begg Uncensored Facts, pg. 176



Is Paul correct in putting 'a serious offence' in quotation marks?

William Druitt said 'serious trouble,' whereas 'offense' suggests a criminal act. Trouble need not be a criminal act.

Yes , I take your point RJ [ that had occurred to me ] 12 days of Christmas was more significant to Victorians than today, so Nov 30 does seem early. I was thinking more of the day [ Friday ] end of school week . Looking up school holidays in Victorian England it seems unlikely there was a holiday at the end of November. Half term in October and Christmas [ too early for Nov 30 ] being the closest .

Thinking of serious trouble rather than offence , could the wording be such as to protect the schools reputation ?

Regards Darryl

[rjpalmer]

Why assume that November 30th is the last day of the term? Doesn't Keith Skinner have a valid point in questioning whether this is two or three weeks too early?

I think the trouble is that there was no uniform rule for winter school break in the 1800s. Different schools had different breaks. In researching the matter, I found a reference to St. Paul's School, London, starting their winter break only several days before Christmas, whereas some esteemed public schools, with a wealthier clientele, did indeed give their students five or six weeks which allowed them to travel to warmer climes, such as southern France, etc.

It's currently impossible to know when George Valentine's school broke up for winter holiday.

[Lewis C]

And yet, the Coles murder was most like Stride, only the cut throat, McKenzie wasn't much more.

The time gap gets to be a real issue for Coles. There is disagreement about whether the 8-month gap between the Kelly and McKenzie murders is long enough to doubt that McKenzie was a Ripper murder, but the 19-month gap between McKenzie and Coles seems too long even for many who think that an 8-month gap is plausible.