Montague Druitt

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Montague John Druitt (August 1857 – early December 1888) was one of the suspects in the Jack the Ripper murders in London between August and November 1888. He came from an upper-middle-class English background and attended Winchester College and Oxford University.

After graduating, he was employed as an assistant schoolmaster at a boarding school and embarked on a parallel career in law, qualifying as a barrister in 1885.

He had a major interest outside of work, including Lord Harris and Francis Lacey, who toured with many leading players of the day. He resigned from his position at the school in November 1888 for reasons that remain unclear.

His body was discovered drowned in the River Thames one month later.

His suicide, which was discovered to be a suicide, was roughly in time with the conclusion of the murders traced to Jack the Ripper.

Private claims that he may have committed the murders became public knowledge in the 1960s and culminated in the publication of books that portrayed him as the murderer.

The evidence against him was purely circumstantial, however, and many writers from the 1970s to date have dismissed him as a suspect.

Early life

Montague Druitt was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. He was William Druitt, the second son and third child of local surgeon William Druitt and his partner Ann (née Harvey). William Druitt served as a justice of the peace, a governor of the local grammar school, and a regular worshipper at the local Anglican church, the Minster. Montague Druitt was christened at the Minster by his maternal great-uncle, Reverend William Mayo, six weeks after his birth. The Druitts lived in Westfield House, the city's most prominent house, and set in its own grounds with stables and servants' cottages. Druitt had six brothers and sisters, including an elder brother William who joined the army and a younger brother Edward who joined the Royal Engineers.

Druitt was educated at Winchester College, where he earned a scholarship at the age of 13, excelled at athletics, particularly cricket and fives. He was involved in the debating group at the academy, an interest that might have sparked his desire to become a barrister. In debates, he spoke in favour of French republicanism, compulsory military service, Benjamin Disraeli's deposal, and the fall of Benjamin Disraeli, the Ottoman Empire, Otto von Bismarck's popularity, and the government's conduct in the Tichborne case. He defended William Wordsworth as "a bulwark of Protestantism" and condemned King Charles I's as "the most brutal murder that will always refer to England's fair name as a blot" and "everything that will never connect to the state's fair name as a blot." He spoke out against the belief that bonding to fashion is a social evil in a light-hearted debate.

Druitt was Prefect of Chapel, treasurer of the debating society, school fives champion, and opening bowler for the cricket team in his last year at Winchester, 1875–76. He played cricket for the school team against Eton College in June 1876, as well as a prospective Principal Private Secretary at the Home Office Evelyn Ruggles-Brise. Studd was bowled out for four by Druitt. He was given a Winchester Scholarship to New College, Oxford, owing to his academic success.

Druitt was adored by his classmates at New College, and he was elected Steward of the Junior Common Room. He competed cricket and rugby for the college team and was a champion of both double and single fives at the university in 1877. He bowled William Patterson out of a seniors' cricket match in 1880, who later captained Kent County Cricket Club.

Druitt began training in Classical Moderations in 1878 and graduated with a third class Bachelor of Arts degree in Literae Humanos (Classics) in 1880. Arthur, his younger brother, joined New College in 1882, just as Druitt was following in his eldest brother William's footsteps by embarking on a career in law.

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Career

Druitt was admitted to the Inner Temple on May 1782, two years after graduation, one of the qualifying bodies for English barristers. Druitt financed his membership fees with a loan from his father, which was equal to £54,000 today), and his father left him a legacy of £500 (equivalent to £54,000 today). On the 29th of April 1885, he was called to the bar and began a new one as a barrister and special pleader.

Druitt's father died suddenly from a heart attack in September 1885, leaving an estate worth £16,579 (roughly £11,905,000 today). Druitt senior ordered his executors to deduct the money he had earned to his son from the fund of £500. Montague received very little money from his father's estate, if any, though he did inherit some of his father's personal possessions. The majority of Dr. Dr. Druitt's estate went to Ann, three unmarried daughters (Georgiana, Edith, and Ethel), as well as his youngest son William.

At 9 King's Bench Walk in the Inner Temple, Druitt rented barristers' chambers. Only the wealthy could afford legal action, and only one in eight out of ten qualified barristers was able to make a living off the legislation. Although some of Druitt's biographers insist his activity did not flourish, others argue that it earned him a substantial sum of money on the basis of his expensive lease of chambers and the value of his estate at death. He is listed on the Western Circuit and Winchester Sessions as active in the 1886 and Winchester Sessions, as well as 1887 in the Western Circuit and Southampton, Portsmouth, and Southampton Assizes.

Druitt served as an assistant schoolmaster at George Valentine's boarding school, 9 Eliot Place, Blackheath, London, from 1880 to help pay for his legal education. The school had a long and distinguished history; Benjamin Disraeli had been a pupil in the 1810s; and the school's children, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who, as a child in the 1860s, had lived nearby in Greenwich Park. Druitt's post was provided with accommodation in Eliot Place, and the long school holidays provided him with time to study the rules and explore his passion for cricket.

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