The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse

by Piu Marie Eatwell

  p. 72 ‘That will be exhumation number two’. Quoted in interview with Mrs Druce in the Modern Detective, 30 March 1898.

  p. 73 nine months’ unpaid rent. Mr Stoward, in his interview with Baileys, Shaw & Gillett of January 1899, mentioned that he had met a Mr Marler in court, who had stated that his wife was keeping Mrs Druce at Tavistock Square, and that she had not paid rent in nine months (NU PI LI/1/3/3).

  p. 73 offers to settle the case. Anna Maria stated on several occasions that she had received offers to settle the case, from both the duke’s and Herbert Druce’s representatives, exceeding £60,000. See, for example, interview in the Modern Detective, 30 March 1898.

  SCENE SIX

  p. 75 the Man from the Star… fog. The December of 1898 was characterized by fog in London – see, for example, the London Daily News, 22 December 1898. The Star man’s visit to Mrs Druce’s offices which is recounted in this chapter is based on a real-life Star journalist’s visit, reported in the Star of 23 December 1898, and the incidents described are as reported in this account.

  p. 76 All around… were newspaper offices. The description of Fleet Street is based on the account of Charles Peabody, one-time reporter on the Morning Post and editor of the Yorkshire Post, in English Journalism and the Men Who Have Made It (1882).

  p. 77 preferred thrills to politics. See Karen Roggenkamp, Narrating the News: New Journalism and Literary Genre in Late Nineteenth Century Newspapers and Fiction: Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2005; Dennis Griffiths, Fleet Street: Five Hundred Years of the Press: The British Library, 2006.

  p. 80 Daily Mail… loggerheads with the News of the World. See the Daily Mail, 19 October 1898, and the News of the World, 23 October 1898.

  pp. 80–1 handwriting samples. See the Daily Mail, 6 October 1898.

  p. 81 ‘one skilled in the science of the head’. See the Daily Mail, 6 December 1898.

  p. 84 Marlow… John Sheridan. Detective J. G. Littlechild, who was tailing Mrs Druce on behalf of the duke and Herbert Druce, followed her in the company of Marlow and Sheridan, and noted in a confidential report to his employers dated 10 August 1898 that Mrs Druce was ‘mixing herself up with a queer lot of City men, Marlow setting the type, but what good they will be to her is questionable’. He also noted the background in relation to Sheridan and the Dreyfus affair (NU PI LI/9/1/1). Since Mrs Druce was being permanently tailed by journalists as well, it is likely that these rumours were current in Fleet Street at the time.

  SCENE SEVEN

  p. 88 Then, cheering crowds… the queen had ascended the daïs. See contemporary newspaper reports of the opening of the new Law Courts on the Strand by Queen Victoria on 4 December 1882. Also Uncle Jonathan, Walks in and Around London, 1895 (3rd edn).

  p. 88 Law Court Particular. See George Augustus Sala, London Up to Date, Ten-Thirty AM at the new Law Courts, Pt I–II (1895).

  p. 89 ghoulish women. See Pall Mall Gazette, 4 December 1890.

  p. 90 Description of central hall and corridors to probate, divorce and admiralty division. See Sala, op. cit.; also the description of the entrance to the new Law Courts in Sir Henry Rider Haggard, Mr Meeson’s Will, Chapter 19 (1888).

  p. 91 had hastily revised his view. See letter from Forbes Winslow to The Times, 17 March 1898.

  p. 93 ‘a great sameness and simplicity about it’. See J. E. G. de Montmorency, John Gorell Barnes, First Lord Gorell: A Memoir, London: John Murray, 1920, Introduction.

  p. 94 intimacy… loss of individuality. See de Montmorency, op.cit.

  p. 94 ‘Madam, you cannot have a Special Jury unless you can show that you are able to pay for it.’ While the full content of the proceedings has necessarily been truncated, the dialogue is transcribed directly from the copy of the short-hand notes taken in the probate court by the court reporter (NU PI/LI/d/2).

  p. 101 committed to a lunatic asylum… bought off by somebody. The ‘official’ story given to the press was that Mrs Druce was committed to an asylum. However, in an interview with an agent of J. G. Littlechild on 10 July 1907, an informant told him that she was ‘not in a lunatic asylum as reported but was living in opulence, which leads them to believe that she has been bought over, especially as her case finished in the way it did’ (NU PI LI/9/4/61).

  SCENE EIGHT

  p. 106 Unrest in Bury St Edmunds. See David Addy, St Edmundsbury Chronicle 2000, St Edmundsbury Council millennial project.

  p. 107 St Matthew’s Fair. St Matthew’s Fair – one of three traditional fairs at Bury – was also the most famous, taking place on the three days preceding and subsequent to St Matthew’s feast on 21 September. It was abolished by the Fairs Act of 1871.

  p. 107 Reverend William Stocking, rector at the village of Tuddenham and reader at St James’ Church in Bury. See Suffolk: Bury St. Edmunds – Biographical List of Boys Educated At King Edward 6th Free Grammar School, 1550–1900: ‘N.B.--Rev. William Stocking, father of this boy, was reader at St. James’, Bury, 1810–29, rector of Tuddenham 1820–29. Died Mar 1829 aged 58.’

  p. 107 marriage licence. The licence for the couple to marry was granted on 16 October 1816, three days before the wedding (Suffolk: Sudbury – Marriage Licences, 1815–1839; Book 12. The Hearth Tax. Charles 2nd). In order to obtain the marriage licence, Thomas Charles Druce was required to execute a bond certifying that there was no just cause for the couple not to be married without their parents’ consent, thus certifying that the couple were of age (i.e., at least twenty-one years old). The exact ages of both T. C. Druce and Elizabeth Crickmer, however, remain something of a mystery, as no birth certificate has been found for either. The claimants in the Druce case always alleged that he was born about 1800, as indeed they had to, as that was the birth year of the 5th Duke of Portland. The year of birth of Elizabeth Crickmer, T. C. Druce’s first wife, is given as 1795 in both her death certificate (Death Dec qtr 1851, St George, Southwark, vol. 4, p. 371) and in the record of her burial (LMA, Norwood Cemetery, Norwood Road, Lambeth, Transcript of Burials, 1851, DW/T Item, 0912; Call Number: DW/T/0912). However, in an interview given to J. G. Littlechild by T. C. Druce’s granddaughter in 1898, she is stated to have been ‘about seventeen’ when she married, which would make her year of birth 1799 or 1800.

  p. 107 one of the most beautiful young women. Many accounts stood testimony to the beauty of Elizabeth Crickmer: see, for example, the Daily Express, 29 June 1903.

  pp. 107–8 attended by the reverend’s own son. See records of King Edward 6th Free Grammar School, op. cit. above.

  p. 108 She came from a prosperous family. See the Daily Express, 29 June 1903. Elizabeth Crickmer’s parentage has never been traced with certainty and the figure of £7000 has not been confirmed. However, that she came from a prosperous family is evident from the style in which she and T. C. Druce lived in the four years after their marriage. G. H. Druce’s publication The Idler of 18 January 1908 (a source that must be approached with caution as it embroiders many facts, but is generally reasonably reliable with reference to background on the Crickmer family) refers to Frances Elizabeth staying in Yarmouth with her ‘cousins’, the Burtons, one of whom – Samuel Burton – was later to become Mayor of Yarmouth. It appears from this statement and the records that Elizabeth’s sister Mary Crickmer made an advantageous match in August 1819 to a gentleman named Samuel Burton. Their marriage was reported in The Times – further indicating that the Crickmers were a family of no small status. See register of marriage, Guildhall, St Andrew Holborn, Register of marriages, 1817–1820, P69/AND2/A/01/Ms 6672/3; also announcement in The Times dated 3 September 1819, in which Mary Crickmer is said to be ‘of Ditchingham’, a village next to Bungay.

  p. 108 apparently of good breeding. See interview given by John Dalgety Henderson, husband to T. C. Druce’s granddaughter, with J. G. Littlechild, 5 December 1898, NU PI L1/9/1/12: ‘From his [i.e., T. C. Druce’s] manners and habits he was evidently of good birth.’

  p. 108 ‘She ran away from school to get married.’ See NU Pl L1/2/11/
3.

  p. 109 School at Southgate Street. The exclusive boarding school, at nos 42 and 43 Southgate Street, was run by Miss Cooke at the time Elizabeth Crickmer would have attended it. By 1865, it had been taken over by a Miss Amelia Hitchins.

  p. 109 Inspiration for school in The Pickwick Papers. There have been rival claims by the town of Rochester to being the source of the inspiration for the girls’ boarding school in The Pickwick Papers.

  p. 109 impressive house on Great Market. T. C. Druce is first referenced at the house in Great Market on 22 September 1816, about a month before his marriage, when he was obviously preparing a home for his wife. He remained a tenant of this house from 1816 until some time between September 1818 and June 1819, each succeeding assessment list containing his name. See the confirmation of entries in the rate books from Bury St Edmunds Corporation to Baileys dated 19 August 1907 at NU Pl L1/11/6/612; also certified entries of the rate books at Bury at NU Pl L1/2/12/2/7.

  p. 109 resident town portraitist. See the Daily Express, 17 July 1903. It is possible that the portraitist in question was the painter James Canterbury Pardon (b. 1792) or a relative.

  p. 110 overseer of the poor. See the confirmation of entries in the rate books from Bury St Edmunds Corporation to Baileys dated 19 August 1907 at NU Pl L1/11/6/612; also certified entries of the rate books at Bury at NU Pl L1/2/12/2/7.

  p. 110 admitted to a nunnery. See account in Society, 3 September 1898; corroborated by a report of J. G. Littlechild, NU PI LI 9/1/1.

  p. 110 Benjafield… Payne. See proof of Charles Benjafield at NU Pl L1/2/7/10.

  p. 111 rented a cottage in… Lower Baxter Street. See the confirmation of entries in the rate books from Bury St Edmunds Corporation to Baileys dated 19 August 1907 at NU Pl L1/11/6/612; also certified entries of the rate books at Bury at NU Pl L1/2/12/2/7.

  p. 111 Childhood recollections of George Druce. See The Idler, op. cit., 18 January 1908.

  p. 111 sent to Yarmouth to live with her cousins, the Burtons. See The Idler, op. cit., 18 January 1908.

  p. 111 Applications to be excused from having to pay the poor rates. See the confirmation of entries in the rate books from Bury St Edmunds Corporation to Baileys dated 19 August 1907 at NU Pl L1/11/6/612, also certified entries of the rate books at Bury at NU Pl L1/2/12/2/7.

  p. 112 William Druce. The ostensible fifth child of Thomas Charles and Elizabeth Druce, William Druce was born at a time when, according to the available records, the couple were estranged.

  p. 112 Claim of George Hollamby that William was illegitimate. See statement of Amanda Gibson to Walter Dew at NA Mepol 3/175.

  p. 112 Freshfields note stating that ‘William is illegitimate’. See NU Pl L1/2/10/90.

  p. 112 poorer area… Eastgate Street. See the confirmation of entries in the rate books from Bury St Edmunds Corporation to Baileys dated 19 August 1907 at NU Pl L1/11/6/612; also certified entries of the rate books at Bury at NU Pl L1/2/12/2/7.

  p. 113 Elizabeth leaves Bury for Kennington. See the Daily Express, 18 July 1903.

  p. 113 Confrontation between Druce and his wife. The account of Elizabeth tracking down T. C. Druce and compelling him to maintain her is given in the Daily Express, 29 June 1903. It was confirmed in many newspapers and witness statements by other members of the Crickmer family.

  p. 113 12 shillings a week. See interview with Mrs Clayton in the Daily Express, 30 June 1903.

  pp. 113–14 T. C. Druce’s actions with respect to the Crickmer children. See The Idler, 18 January 1908.

  p. 114 Mrs Gibbons… Mrs Whitwell. Reference to Fanny being sent to these establishments is made in The Idler (18 January 1908). Mrs Gibbons’ school appears in Pigot’s Directory of 1839 and in the 1841 census, in which Mrs Whitwell is listed as a governess. Fanny is not listed at either address in the 1841 census; possibly because, as noted in The Idler, she left boarding school that year.

  p. 114 Letter from T. C. Druce to Fanny. Cited in The Idler, op. cit., 18 January 1908. A sample of T. C. Druce’s handwriting in the form of a letter signed ‘your affectionate father’ was handed to the Daily Mail, to compare with that of the 5th Duke of Portland.

  p. 114 assigned the lease. See record of T. C. Druce’s movements compiled by Freshfields at NU Pl L1/2/9/5.

  p. 114 Annie May introduced as aunt. According to an account published in the magazine The Idler on 18 January 1908.

  p. 115 her father told her that Elizabeth had died. See The Idler, 18 January 1908, supported by the interview of J. G. Littlechild with Fanny’s daughter on 8 December 1898 (NU PI LI/9/1/2). G. H. Druce goes on to state in The Idler that Fanny continued to see her mother in secret (see also interview with Mrs Clayton in the Daily Express, 30 June 1903).

  p. 115 collecting her weekly allowance from her husband at her brother’s house in Kennington. See account of an interview with Elizabeth’s nephew John Crickmer in the Daily Express, 29 June 1903; also Mrs Clayton in the Daily Express, 30 June 1903. Mary Ann Robinson recounted in a statement to police in June 1908 that John Crickmer had told her that he, or sometimes his father Charles, Elizabeth’s brother, would collect her money from T. C. Druce at the Baker Street Bazaar (NA Mepol. 3/175).

  p. 115 Fanny continued to see Elizabeth… cast-off clothes. See interview with Mrs Clayton in the Daily Express, 30 June 1903. The fact that Elizabeth made shirts to eke a living is borne out by the 1851 census, where there is an entry for an ‘Elizabeth Douce, visitor’, described as a ‘shirt-maker’, in the household of the Waller family at 8 East Street, St George’s, Southwark. Mary Waller, the wife of the household, is listed on Elizabeth’s death certificate as the informant who was present at her death, at the same address.

  p. 115 Description of Elizabeth Crickmer. See interview with Mrs Clayton in the Daily Express, 30 June 1903.

  p. 116 ‘appeared to be intoxicated’. See Pl L1/2/6/9.

  p. 116 Elizabeth’s real death in 1851. See records of burials at Norwood Cemetery and Elizabeth’s death certificate (ref: London Metropolitan Archives, Norwood Cemetery, Norwood Road, Lambeth, Transcript of Burials, 1851, DW/T Item, 0912; Call Number: DW/T/0912; 1851, 4th qtr, Southwark, Vol. 4, p. 371).

  p. 116 George and William… outbound ships to Australia. George Druce married Mary Hollamby in Victoria in 1854; William Druce married Hannah Church in Paddington, New South Wales, also in 1854.

  p. 116 Charles Crickmer was to follow them. A Mr C. Druce is listed in the Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists from Plymouth arriving in Sydney, New South Wales, on 24 February 1878, on the vessel Lochee.

  p. 116 marrying after her ‘aunt’s’ death a butcher by the name of John Izard. Eliza Tremaine died at the house in St John’s Wood in 1857 (2nd qtr, 1857, St Marylebone, London, Vol. 1a, p. 307). Fanny married John James Izard, a butcher, on 14 September 1858, in the parish of St Marylebone (LMA, Saint Marylebone, Register of marriages, P89/MRY1, Item 231).

  p. 117 John Crickmer. See account of an interview with the nephew of Elizabeth Crickmer, John, in the Daily Express, 29 June 1903.

  pp. 117–18 Letter from Mr Edney. Cited in The Idler, 18 January 1908.

  p. 118 not been told the truth. See report by J. G. Littlechild of interview with Fanny’s daughter on 8 December 1898, NU PI LI 9/1/2.

  p. 118 No carriage in the funeral cortège having been provided for them. Charles Crickmer was present at the official reading of his father’s will. See interview of Fanny’s daughter by J. G. Littlechild on 8 December 1898, NU PI LI/9/1/2.

  SCENE NINE

  p. 121 born in a mining camp at Campbell’s Creek, Victoria. The details of George Hollamby’s early life in Australia are taken from an interview given by him in the Penny Illustrated Press, 30 November 1907 (My Life in Australia).

  p. 122 Edward Hammond Hargraves. For a full account of the now legendary discovery by Hargraves of gold in Ophir, see Nancy Keesing, ed., History of the Australian Gold Rushes, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1967, pp. 11–14.

  p. 124 ‘That… w
as the start in life she gave me.’ See the Penny Illustrated Press, 30 November 1907, op. cit.

  p. 124 George Hollamby in the Australian bush. The account of George Hollamby’s experiences in the Australian bush is taken from his interview with the Daily Express, 8 July 1908.

  p. 125 younger brother Charles burst into the room. The story is recounted by George’s brother Charles in evidence given on deposition to the court in Australia at NU Pl L1/2/4/2/23/2.

  pp. 127–8 Letter from Mark Twain. Letter from Mark Twain to Jesse M. Leathers, 5 October 1875, Mark Twain Papers, California Digital Library.

  p. 130 confidential offer of £50,000. See statement of Francis Coles to Walter Dew, NA Mepol 3/175.

  p. 131 bankrupted on several occasions. See the various petitions for bankruptcy filed by T. K. V. Coburn in the Victoria court at NU Pl L1/11/4/38/12.

  p. 131 J. Howden comment. See NA PRO DPP 1/11, R. v. Robinson.

  SCENE TEN

  p. 133 65 London Wall. The offices once occupied by the Druce supporters at 65 London Wall in 1907 still exist today. The building retains many of its original period features.

  p. 134 ‘Second floor’. The description of the location, people and events at the Druce offices at 65 London Wall in this chapter are taken from the two statements given by Amanda Malvina Gibson to Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew in July 1908, unless otherwise stated (NA Mepol. 3/175).