Lieutenant Colonel Edward Druitt (19 April 1859 – 25 July 1922) was a British

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

officer principally known as an inspecting officer of the Railways Inspectorate in the early twentieth century.

Early life and family

Edward Druitt was born in

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Pool ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England. He was from an upper-middle-class background and the third son and fourth child of prominent local surgeon William Druitt, and his wife Ann (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Harvey). William Druitt was a justice of the peace, a governor of the local grammar school, and a regular worshipper at the local

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, the Minster.Cullen, p. 224; Leighton, pp. 10–12 The Druitts lived at Westfield House, which was the largest house in the town, and set in its own grounds with stables and servants' cottages. Druitt had six brothers and sisters, including an elder brothers William who entered the practice of law, and Montague who was a barrister and historically was

suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U. ...

ed of being

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

Druitt's father died suddenly from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in September 1885, leaving an estate valued at £16,579 (equivalent to £ today). Druitt converted to Catholicism whilst based with the army at Chatham in February 1887. In February 1889 he married Christina-Mary-Filumea Weld, the eldest daughter of Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld, a member of a prominent Catholic family in the West Country.

Career

Druitt studied at

Cheltenham College Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...

and the

Royal Military Academy Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Si ...

. After graduating, he was commissioned as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in 1878,

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in 1883,

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in 1896 and finally lieutenant colonel in 1904. His service as a military engineer included work in Australia in the 1890s where he designed and supervised the construction of Kissing Point Fortification and Green Hill Fort. After Druitt's return to England after his Australian service, he eventually retired from the Royal Engineers around 1900 and moved to Edinburgh where he was a railway inspector for the rest of his working life. In his nearly 20-year career with the Railway Inspectorate Druitt investigated over 130 railway accidents, generally in Scotland. Druitt's most notable investigation was of the accident at

Quintinshill The Quintinshill rail disaster was a multi-train rail crash which occurred on 22 May 1915 outside the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and remains the worst rail ...

on 22 May 1916 which remains the worst railway accident in British history with 227 fatalities.

Death

Druitt died at the Craig House (at the time known as the Royal Edinburgh Asylum) in Edinburgh, Scotland on 25 July 1922. According to his death certificate he had been suffering from diabetes for four years at the time of his death.

References

;Notes ;Sources * * Cullen, Tom (1965) ''Autumn of Terror''. London: The Bodley Head. * Leighton, D. J. (2006) ''Ripper Suspect: The Secret Lives of Montague Druitt''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. * McDonald, Deborah (2007) ''The Prince, His Tutor and the Ripper''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co.

External links

The Druitt papers
at the

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

Record Office
Cuthbert Druitt papers
at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Druitt, Edward 1859 births 1922 deaths British railway inspectors Royal Engineers officers 19th-century British Army personnel People educated at Winchester College People from Wimborne Minster Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Military personnel from Dorset