|
 |
 |
|
|
|
| Author |
Message |
    
AJ Malidore
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 2:26 pm: |       |
M.J. Druitt is a realitive of mine.he is my great-great-great grandfather. or something of that line. |
Maria Giordano
Police Constable
Username: Mariag
Post Number: 2
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 3:44 pm: | |
Sorry to break this to you, AJ, but if he's some kind of grandfather , your ancestors were born on the "wrong side of the sheets."
Try to track down a more specific relationship. There's a lot about the Druitt family that I--and probably others-- would like to know.
Mariag |
CKing
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2004 - 8:37 pm: | |
I have a book given to me by my great aunt
which was owned and is signed by M.J.Druitt.
We were not permitted to discuss the possible link with Jack the Ripper. In the book of Mayo it just mentions his death and no other details. He remains an enigma and I often look at his signature and wonder. He was a cousin of my grandfather. If you want more info I shall do my best.
The signature is on the fly of a book of wild flowers published in 1880 called Flowers of the Field. It would be hard to photocopy as it is on a grey-brown endpaper. It reads
from
MJDruitt |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1586
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 5:30 pm: | |
"Flowers of the Field"
By Reverend C.A. Johns
Published by S.P.C.K. (Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge)
The 1880 edition was the 25th edition and has 664 pages and 392 illustrations.
The illustrator was Emily Stackhouse
This comment is from Country Life magazine, 1995:
The Reverend Charles Alexander Johns was not the first exponent o of this style of writing, but he certainly provided most entertaining examples. With a natural exuberance, he possessed the gift of expressing his zeal in words. Although his first publications were mainly in the rambling genre, Johns is best remembered for his later works, “A Week at the Lizard”, “The Forest Trees of Britain”, and the Bible of the amateur botanist, “Flowers of the Field”.
This remarkable compendium of the British Flora, first published in a two-volume set in 1851, was still in print in the 1970’s. But while Johns’s fame was virtually assured, the chances of any recognition for his favourite illustrator, Emily Stackhouse, have been bound up for the past 140 years in three leather volumes containing 629 carefully crafted botanical watercolors. Treasured by her descendants, but unknown to scholars, they reveal the tremendous contribution made to Johns’s works by this quiet and unassuming botanist.
|
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1587
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 5:35 pm: | |
A few more details about Johns:
KITTIWAKE, Miss A.D. Johns (Christmas 1865) and Miss K. Johns (1864), Winton House, Winchester. Daughters of the Rev. Charles Alexander Johns (1811-1874) president of Winchester Literary and Scientific Society and author of the bestselling Flowers of the Field (1853), who ran a prep school at Winton House, Andover Road, Winchester and had been second master of Helston Grammar School under Derwent Coleridge
This is from an account of the Gosling Society at
http://www.dur.ac.uk/c.e.schultze/context/goslings.html |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 1258
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 6:17 pm: | |
Thanks Chris for this .Also very interested in anything else CKing might be able to glean.MJDruitt remains an enigma.However regarding
his sportsmanship,legal work,social network and
debating skills we have come to know quite a bit!
But apart from the High Commissioner of police
the old Etonian Machnaghten,having him down as his "prime suspect"we currently have nothing else to link him to the murders.
Maybe he was interested in Botany too-or was he perhaps an admirer of the author-the Reverend CA Johns? My own hunch has him down as a conventional thinker who could be "quirky"-as in his debates[though as someone pointed out these particular debates which took place when he was an Oxford student could just have been on subjects picked out of a hat].Non the less I have the feeling that were he for example gay,he might have found it difficult to present himself in his many roles especially being an enthusiastic athlete and sportsman on the one hand and moving in fairly robust male circles in this particular role,while juggling a part time teaching job in a boys school with being a barrister with chambers in the Inner Temple and latterly anyway apparently very bothered about his mother"s mental health as well as his own.
By the way Chris, Derwent Coleridge was a Reverend too and ran a boys school in Hanwell.There may be a link there of some kind.He was the son of the Poet.
Natalie |
John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 310
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 6:00 am: | |
Perhaps Montague Druitt's interest was in giving a popular flora guide to someone. ("from MJ Druitt" ).
The author appears to have had two common areas with MJD. He was a school master, and his school was in Winchester, as was MJD's "alma mater". |
Phil Hill
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 11:40 am: | |
It sounds as though it was a GIFT - to a woman(?), given the title - from Druitt rather than owned by him. Would it have been given to your great aunt by him (what were her dates of birth and death?)
What is the "book of Mayo" you mention? Does this have a connection to County Mayo in Ireland? If druitt had an Irish connection - catholic or Orange, I would be VERY interested!!
With whom were you not allowed to mention the Ripper link, and why? Who made the prohibition and when? Timing could be important here.
Hope you'll reply, I am fascinated
Phil |
David Cartwright
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 2:32 pm: | |
Hi Phil...Our paths crossed on the "Barnett" message-board, in debate with "Leanne"...I've just read your last message here, and I too am very fascinated by this book that is signed by M.J.Druitt.
Druitt has always been the man I believe to have been Jack the Ripper, and I've discussed all aspects and reasons for this belief on these message-boards...Therefore, anything new about him, in any context, is of the greatest interest to me.
If you hear anything further on this matter, I will read your comments on it with the utmost interest.
Best wishes Phil
David Cartwright} |
CKing
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 5:51 pm: | |
To Phil Hill and David Cartwright.
My longwinded 2nd posting is on http://
casebook.org / forum / messages / 4922 /
13912.html.
Re family Mayo see John Ruffels post no. 237 on Druitt & E.J.Ruggles-Brise
Best wishes,
Chris King |
CKing
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 8:20 pm: | |
Just found Stephen Ryder's dissertation: Emily and the bibliophile note 19. This may be the book on the Mayo family I mentioned. If so it was not a family in Norfolk but Wiltshire and this is entirely my mistake.
Stephen mentions Emerald Isle Books and the the fact he had not received a reply. It could be that they are situated in Belfast not Dublin. If he wishes I can ask John('Jack') Gamble as I know him quite well as I have bought many books on Ireland from him over the years. |
|
Use of these
message boards implies agreement and consent to our Terms of Use.
The views expressed here in no way reflect the views of the owners and
operators of Casebook: Jack the Ripper.
Our old message board content (45,000+ messages) is no longer available online, but a complete archive
is available on the Casebook At Home Edition, for 19.99 (US) plus shipping.
The "At Home" Edition works just like the real web site, but with absolutely no advertisements.
You can browse it anywhere - in the car, on the plane, on your front porch - without ever needing to hook up to
an internet connection. Click here to buy the Casebook At Home Edition.
|
|
|
|
