Druitt and Winchester

[Byzantine]

The memo was 1894.

Which would mean a) that we have the memories of an officer six years after the fact b) the boys were probably aged to adulthood c) the Home Secretary was Herbert Henry Asquith, later 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928). He held the position from 1892 to 1895. The most celebrated case of his term was probably the arrest of Oscar Wilde right during its last year. Wilde "was arrested for "gross indecency" under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. In British legislation of the time, this term implied homosexual acts not amounting to buggery, which was an offence under a separate statute."

"Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years".

[Mayerling]

Hi Byzantine,

Matthews was favored by Queen Victoria because he had been one of the barristers who pounded at Sir Charles Dilke in the Crawford Case, the adultery scandal that destroyed Dilke's potential leadership of the Liberal Party in 1885. Dilke, earlier in his career, had been an outspoken critic of the monarchy, and in the early 1870s led a political movement to make Britain a republic. That would not make Victoria like Dilke.

As for Matthews he was to keep making mistakes as Home Secretary after 1888. One would think that Miss Cass, Lipski, and the Ripper would be sufficient. In 1890 he had the case of the Crewe Murder. Two brothers, Richard and George Davies, killed their father and tried to make it look like he had been killed by a third party. It turned out the father mistreated their mother and they killed him to protect her. Both brothers were tried for the murder and convicted. Matthews got deluged by petitions from around the country begging him to commuted the sentences. For some remarkably dumb reason he decided to reduce George's sentence to life imprisonment (George was under 18 years of age when the murder was committed) but let Richard get executed because he was 19.

There was also the Maybrick disaster, wherein the same judge in the Lipski case (James Fitzjames Stephen) went crazy and gave an unbalanced address to the jury that helped convict the lady of adultery (but she was being tried for murder). But that was mostly out of Matthews hands and he at least did commute Mrs. Maybrick's sentence relatively quickly.

Jeff

[aspallek]

I would repeat that there is absolutely no indication that the Macnaghten memorandum was penned for the Home Secretary.

It is addressed to no one and no record of it is to be found in the Home Office files.

We simply do not know for whose eyes it was intended. It may have been Macnaghten's intent merely to place something in the files, i.e. it was prepared for nobody in particular.

And yes, the memo is a reflection of his mind six years after the murders. However, Macnaghten would have known of Druitt at least as early as 1891 when Farquharson's blabbings were reported to the police.

[Mrs Hudson]

Greetings,

Macnaghten's Memo was written by a senior police officer for the purposes of Scotland Yard and the British Government. That's it in a nutshell, I'm afraid.

Yesterday I mentioned that Evelyn Ruggles-Brise and Montague Druitt spent, I believe, four years together at Oxford and that they sat the Civil Service exam at the same time.

Given the charge of "sexual insanity" levelled against Druitt by Macnaghten, I think it's important to comment here on another candidate at this examination, Charles Kains Jackson.

Charles Kains Jackson (1857-1933) was one of the most prominent "boy worshippers" in late Victorian Britain. He was the editor of "The Artist and Journal of Home Culture" where in an unusually outspoken article in 1894 entitled "The New Chivalry", he argued that the future of mankind lies in the "Greek ideal" of boy love.

He was a friend of Lord Alfred Douglas, the most famous lover of Oscar Wilde. Douglas, like Druitt, went to Winchester, albeit not at the same time.

Anyway, time for a cup of tea.

Regards.

[Captain Hook]

[QUOTE=Mrs Hudson;57560] Macnaghten's Memo was written by a senior police officer for the purposes of Scotland Yard and the British Government. That's it in a nutshell, I'm afraid.QUOTE]

Mrs Hudson,

I find your posts on this subject quite interesting and look forward to future ones. I cannot, however, fully agree with your statement quoted above. You may indeed have identified the purpose of the Macnaghten Memorandum 'in a nutshell' - but I fear that a nutshell is not good enough. More detail is needed, or more information, or both. It is pretty clear that Macnaghten reacted in response to press reports hinting that Cutbush was the Ripper. In the Memorandum, he listed three persons as more likely to have been the Ripper than Cutbush was. Was this Memorandum written for the purposes of Scotland Yard? If it was, what were these purposes? Who requested it? To whom was it delivered? And, most important, why is there no record of it in any files? Was the Memorandum written for the purposes of the British Government? If so, which branch of government? The Home Office comes to mind, but if this is the case, what were the Memorandum's purposes, who requested it, who got it and why is there no record of it?

Everything appears to indicate that Macnaghten prepared the Memorandum as an aide-memoire in case it became necessary to react officially to the Cutbush question, and may or may not have shared it informally with other officials. Eventually, the Cutbush question did not prosper, the matter did not become critical and the Memorandum was not used. Macnaghten may never have submitted it formally to anyone either in the Police or the Home Office. Indeed, if it had been published, or become in some way official, it would probably have created more problems than it would have solved. It might or not have cleared Cutbush, who to many remains a credible suspects years after the Memorandum became known. And it would have opened a typical Pandora's Box when the evidence against the Macnaghten suspects - a habitual petty criminal, an insane man and a suicide - was examined and found wanting.

I must leave now, not for tea but for a different kind of refreshment, considering the tropical climate here at Neverland, but I look forward to further debate.

Cheers,
Hook.

[Johnr]

Where Are The Asquith Papers?

So,
If the Macnaghten Memorandum was prepared as an advance strategy ( a normal precaution) to provide information for the Home Secretary to use in parliament...
And because no copy of that Memorandum has been located in official files ( although rough drafts survived amongst the Macnaghten family's papers)...
Has anybody checked Home Secretary Asquith's papers to see if a copy or other documents has survived therein?
We also have to ask ourselves, where is the file Macnaghten used to prepare his brief? JOHN RUFFELS.

[Mrs Hudson]

Captain Hook & Johnr, Greetings,

Macnaghten's Memorandum, as is usual with Crown documents, was deposited in the Public Record Office in Kew as part of the Scotland Yard files on the Ripper case. I believe it's located in File MEPO 3/141. These files were open to the public in the late 1970s.

Do I understand you properly? Are you saying that the Memorandum is not there?

Regards.

[aspallek]

Greetings,

Macnaghten's Memo was written by a senior police officer for the purposes of Scotland Yard and the British Government. That's it in a nutshell, I'm afraid.

Yesterday I mentioned that Evelyn Ruggles-Brise and Montague Druitt spent, I believe, four years together at Oxford and that they sat the Civil Service exam at the same time.

I'd not interested in arguing a point for which there is not evidence. I will say only this once more that the Macnaghten memorandum was not addressed to anyone, it is not found in the Home Office files, and there is no internal suggestion of its intended audience. While it is possible the memorandum was intended for that Office there is no grounds for assuming it to be even likely.

Ruggles-Brice and Druitt also played cricket together at Oxford, btw.

[Scott Nelson]

Check the Pall Mall Gazzette 1903 interview with Abberline and the 1907 Sims piece for mention of the Memorandum.

[aspallek]

Hi Scott. These are not necessarily mentions of the memorandum.

[Mrs Hudson]

Greetings All!

The Macnaghten Memorandum is Crown property, which is why it is stored in the Public Record Office in Kew, just outside London. It is part of a Scotland Yard file, as opposed to a Home Office file, because it was written by a senior officer in the Metropolitan Police. This is not a serious problem because The Home Secretary, the politician responsible for Law and Order in England and Wales, would have had access to this file and could have obtained sight of the Memorandum whenever he wished. It is clear that Macnaghten wrote the Memo to help the government/Scotland Yard rebut allegations that Thomas Cutbush was the Ripper. Not surprisingly, Macnaghten marked his Memo "Confidential" which means that it would have been securely stored with restricted access and that any public servant who leaked material from it to an unauthorized person without official permission would have faced dismissal or, feasibly, imprisonment. The Memo, as part of Scotland Yard's material on the Ripper case, was originally closed to the public until 1992. However the government bowed to public pressure and opened the files in, I believe, 1976.

That is the administrative background of Macnaghten's Memo as I understand it. I'm talking of course about the Scotland Yard version. The "private" version is another matter.

I did mention that Druitt and Ruggles-Brise played cricket at Oxford. Cricket would have given the two men plenty of chance to talk things "over". (Please feel free to groan.)

This is surely a uniquely British scenario. The prime Ripper suspect playing cricket with the (future) assistant to the politician responsible for catching the Ripper! Even Gilbert and Sullivan never thought that one up.

Anyway, that's all I want to say. I'm now going to retire and enjoy lots of cups of tea.

Best wishes to all.

Cheerio.

[aspallek]

Greetings All!
That is the administrative background of Macnaghten's Memo as I understand it.

I am afraid there is absolutely no known "administrative background" to the Macnaghten memorandum other than its author and date of writing. it is simply a document that stands alone -- or rather that stands in relation to the Aberconway version.

What we can infer is that by 1894 Macnaghten would have been familiar with the claims of Henry Richard Farquharson regarding Druitt three years previously. I believe the memorandum shows a certain reliance on Farquharson.

[Natalie Severn]

Andy,
Did you know that there was a Farquharson, -Major JC Farquharson,- who was governor of Chatham Prison? Chatham Prison in Kent housed numbers of Irishmen imprisoned for their dealings in explosives such as Thomas Callan, Clan na Gael member and earlier Michael Davitt was imprisoned there before being transferred to Dartmoor.
Major Farquharson was a particularly severe governor by all accounts.
A commission was appointed to investigate the treatment of prisoners in his charge.
Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brice wrote a lengthy tomb entitled "The English Prison System" in 1921 which along with Sir Arthur Griffiths,"Memorials of Millbank" in 1884 would probably provide a good overview of what went on in these institutions.
It really is fascinating how frequently references to the Whitechapel murders overlap with that of the [Irish] Special Branch"s activities.It was Henry Matthews,home Secretary who suggested to his private secretary, Evelyn Ruggles- Brice in 1888 in a private memo,"Stimulate the police about the Whitechapel murders.Monro might be willing to give a hint to the CID people if necessary".

[Johnr]

Is it possible Macnaghten slipped his Memorandum into the MEPOL files late in the JTR saga? And therefore, it was not actively used by the Home Secretary?
Well, perhaps the Cutbush allegations did not make it into the House of Commons.
Marked " Confidential" - not " Secret " as one would expect with such a delicate subject -there do not appear to be any of the normal bureaucratic scribblings upon the document. Such as the initials and/or comments by the Chief Commissioner, the head of CID nor the Home Secretary's private secretary.
Not only did Macnaghten get things wrong ( like the claim Druitt was a doctor), but it appears Inspector Abberline too, got things wrong.
Scott cites the 1903 interview with Abberline concerning the Druitt Suspicion.
In that interview Abberline claimed a report was prepared for the Home Secretary.Wrong. It does not appear to have arrived on the Home Secretary's desk. Did Abberline see it and not initial it?
Unless Abberline is referring to the standard practice that all coronial reports of suicides are routinely sent to the Home Secretary.
In my opinion Ruggles-Bryse may have contributed to Macnaghten's knowledge of Druitt by mentioning (orally?) that he knew of the family from his school/university cricketing days and that the family were big in medicine.
JOHN RUFFELS.

[Natalie Severn]

John,
It seems to me it could have been any one of a number of sources might have fed information to Macnaghten. George Valentine himself had been born in Bombay and may have had contacts to Macnaghten.Macnaghten"s friend ,Monro ,was ,up to 1884 ,the Chief of Police in Bombay,which is where he had made friends with Macnaghten who ran a tea plantation there.There were even some fairly distant relatives of Montague Druit who were in the Tea Plantation business who may have added bits of information to the rumours-if rumours there were,about Druitt. Rugles- Brice though ,as secretary to the Home Secretary, was heavily into Civil service work for Matthews,- connected with prisons,anarchists ,CID- Special Irish Branch ---wherever the Home Secretary"s brief took him- from what I can glean.In some ways the "elite" were quite a small close knit grouping in those days -think of the numbers of "old boys" Monty would have had a passing aquaintance with at Temple alone----and doubtless stories like the one about him being suspected of being Jack the Ripper would have spread like wildfire.