Tasmanian Connection

[How Brown]

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/01-1.jpghttp://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/02-1.jpghttp://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/03-1.jpg

[How Brown]

Many thanks to Adam Went, who went through hell and high water in order to track the previous 5 page encapsulation.

Hopefully when AW gets a chance he can elaborate on the material which we've put up.

[Jonathan Hainsworth]

The desperate claim of British TV host/journalist Dan Farson that he had this Holy Grail document, and that it was supposedly stolen, and then he had try to spend years trying to re-track it down, is a red herring.

It was long ago proved to be nothing but a speculative piece in an Aussie tabloid -- nothing to do with an expatriate Druitt [I think by Howeels and Skinner?].

This alleged 'smoking gun' story never made much sense anyhow.

Why would a family member so blithely spill the beans on the big family secret? Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

I think the real story, cobbled together from what we have plus gossip, is that Farson and Amaerican Marxist/writer Tom Cullen had a falling out, and the latter 'stole', eg. made copies of the Druitt material [the real 'grail' was the Aberconway Version] and thus first published the name of Montague John Druitt ahead of Farson, who had found the real identity of the Drowned not-a-Dolctor.

Both writers were fooled by the McCormick rubbish about Albert Backert of the Vigilance Committee supposedly being told by police that they had fished the Ripper out of the river, and were pulling back on their patrols.

Farson and Cullen never took Macnaghten's memoir admission seriously; that Druitt was completely unknown to Scotland Yard until 'some years after' his Thames plunge. They mistakenly thought that this would weaken the case for their suspect, when it actually does the opposite -- once you know about the MP story [which they did not] and the furious police agitation over Sadler in 1891 [which they did].

I would say that these few pages unconsciously juxtapose what Cullen brilliantly argued was deranged Montie's real motive: to use terroristic methods to force reforms of the East End's systemic poverty.

[Adam Went]

G'day How and all,

Yes, just a couple of bits of info to add on to that at the moment, there will hopefully be more to come.

There is an obituary for Dr. Lionel Druitt in The Argus (a Melbourne newspaper). He died on January 7th, 1908, and the brief obituary reads as follows:

"On the 7th of January, at his late residence, "Wimborne", Mentone, Lionel Druitt, M.D. &C., aged 53 years, son of the late Robert* Druitt, M.D., F.R.C.P., and F.R.C.S., London."

* = The transcript of the text calls him Hubert Druitt, but I've seen the actual article and it's Robert Druitt.

There is also an obituary for Dr. Druitt's wife, from March 12, 1937 in The Mercury:

"Mrs. Lionel Druitt died last month in Beaumaris (Victoria). She was the widow of Dr. Lionel Druitt, who was medical practioner [sic] at Swansea more than 40 years ago. Mrs. Druitt leaves three daughters."

It seems that Dr. Druitt was given licence by the Court of Medical Examiners to practice in Tasmania around April/May 1891 (there was a brief mention in The Mercury on May 5, 1891 of this, along with one Dr. Hugh Armstrong) - as the scans Howard put up show, Druitt then practiced at Swansea from 1891 until 1896.

Perhaps of more interest will be a letter to the editor, written by Dr. Lionel Druitt himself, once again in The Mercury of April 7, 1892, which I will now transcribe in full:

"DIPTHERIA AT SWANSEA:
Sir,- As Mr. John Cotton seeks to console himself and his relatives in their bereavement by having a public slap at me, as the medical attendant, I must ask you to allow me to state my version of the case, and I will do so as briefly as possible.

Mr. Cotton is quite correct in saying that the patient had no relapse. There was no relapse. The patient went on steadily from bad to worse during the whole course of her illness, and when I reluctantly came to the conclusion that a fatal termination was inevitable, and informed her relatives of my opinion, they very wisely and properly decided to have further medical advice and sent for Dr. Tofft on the morning of March 21, and he arrived that same evening by the coach, and departed again the following morning. After Dr. Tofft had come and gone, Mr. John Cotton and the other relatives, the wish being father to the thought, fancied they saw considerable improvement in the patient. I, however, never saw any. If the patient had improved at 10 a.m. on the 22nd the improvement had completely disappeared by 11 a.m., when I paid my visit. Infact, she was obviously sinking, though she did not expire till the next day.

I must now say a few words as to my treatment of the case, as Mr. John Cotton obviously considers that it is the immediate and remote cause of the patient's death. The disease in this case came on very insidiously, but as soon as the characteristic throat symptoms appeared I freely applied to the throat a solution sulphurous acid diluted with glycerine. This is well known as a powerful cleaner and disinfectant, and it has the advantage of being perfectly painless in its application. I have used it frequently with success in previous cases, and I may state parenthetically that deceased's older sister, who was ill at the same time, though less severely, with the same disease, recovered perfectly under its use. Also, I endeavoured to support the patient's strength with such tonics as she was able to take, together with peptonised food, and wine and brandy at regular intervals. She had an excellent, kindly, and attentive nurse, and I am absolutely certain that nothing was left undone that should have been done. It would take up too much space to detail all the plans by which I tried to give relief, such as steam inhalation, with and without eucalyptus, etc., etc., and had to discard as useless, only increasing the patient's discomfort. In spite of everything the false membrane in the throat spread with unexampled rapidity, blocking the nostrils, and threatening at last to block the wind-pipe itself.

On the evening that Dr. Tofft was expected I took care to be in time to meet him. On my entering the sick room the patient said to me, "Oh doctor, I do feel so much better," and on examining the throat I saw that the membrane had a pulpy, disintegrated appearance, and whenever she coughed small pieces of it were expelled. This looked like a hopeful sign, but taking into account the patient's general condition I was unable either to indulge or to impart any false hopes as to the result.

Dr. Tofft arrived in due course, and after consultation with me, advised the substitution of oil of peppermint for sulphurous acid as an application to the throat. To this I consented, and he accordingly supplied some that he had brought with him, and he expressed himself hopefully as to the result. The immediate effect of this application was to give the patient considerable pain, but this passed off in a few minutes, and we went outside for further consultation. We had not been outside many minutes when the nurse called us in again, saying that the patient was very bad indeed. So we went in again, and found her apparently in danger of collapse from stoppage of the heart, which is well known as a dangerous complication in diptheria. This, however, passed off by degrees. Dr. Tofft then remarked to me -"I don't feel quite so hopeful about her now." She then remained in the same condition, getting neither better nor worse, till about 11 p.m, when I departed, leaving Dr. Tofft in charge. When I called again at 11 o'clock next morning I found the patient's condition unaltered, save for a great increase of weakness : but I faithfully carried out the instructions left by Dr. Tofft, which were for an application of oil of peppermint largely diluted with olive oil, and an application of sulphurous acid alternately every four hours. That same afternoon the patient's difficulty in breathing increased to such an extent that I was (?) to try one of the "placebos" suggested by Dr. Tofft, and I caused a tent of blankets to be erected round the patient and filled with steam from a kettle, but the effect of this was worse than useless ; it only increased the distress and the apparatus had to be hastily removed in a few minutes. One quasi-comical episode remains to be mentioned. That same evening Mr. John Cotton, finding medical aid of no avail, took upon himself to try a quack "remedy," and set a soup-plate full of burning pitch in the middle of the room, almost under the patient's nose, so that when I came to pay my last visit that evening, I could neither see nor breathe in the room, which was full of thick black smoke. Anything more calculated in increase the distress of a patient on the verge of suffocation can hardly be imagined. Of course, to do the thing properly, he should have solemnly danced round the soup-plate with a wand, and chanted an incantation, but he took good care not to remain in the smoke himself. I do not think, however, that this had any material effect on the course of the disease ; the patient lingered on till 4 p.m. on the following day, when she quietly expired. This letter is very much longer than I intended it to be when I began, but it is the only one I intend to write. I am quite willing to let the profession and the public judge between me and Mr. John Cotton, and he is welcome to the last word if he wants it. Dr. Tofft is a gentleman for whom I have the greatest regard professionally, and with whom I have the privilege to be on terms of intimate friendship, and therefore I regret very much having to make use of his name in the way I have done, but it is inevitable, and I feel sure that he will pardon me under the circumstances. Besides, it is not I who began it. Yours, etc.,
LIONEL DRUITT M.D., Erc. Swansea, April 1."

I am not a doctor so I can't comment on how effective Druitt and Tofft's treatments would have been for diptheria in any case, but perhaps somebody else might know a bit more about it?

He does get a few mentions in the local papers of the day - there's even a mention of his holding a post mortem and the findings from that in a murder case (December 1892), as long with some family notices of marriages and what not in the family.

As for Swansea itself, I have only ever been through it a couple of times and that was when I was much younger, so I don't have much personal remembrance of the place - I do know that it's in an area of the East Coast of Tasmania that is quite a popular tourist and holiday destination, and it's in a pretty nice area.

Swansea wasn't settled until the 1820's, and even now it is only a small Coastal town - according to some information from September 2009, the population is just 530 people. So while I don't have an exact figure for the population during Lionel Druitt's time there, it would be fair to estimate that it would not have been any more than 150 or so people, and probably less.

Here is the Wikipedia link for the town which gives you a bit of a background and some other info that might be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swansea,_Tasmania

As for Dr. Druitt, I mentioned earlier in this post that I'll post any other info up as I get it, so i'm still on the hunt. There's a friend of a relative of mine who used to be part of a historical society down the East Coast who's going to see what he can dig up, fingers crossed we can find out more about Dr. Druitt - perhaps there may even be photos or documents in existence still. I may make the trip over to Swansea some time in the not too distant future and see what I can find, but for the moment, atleast there's a bit of info on him.....

Just for the record, those images that Howard posted up come from "A Quinology Of Tasmanian Crime Cases" by Reg A. Watson.

Hope all this info has been interesting.....better end here, got typers cramp!

Cheers,
Adam.

[How Brown]

Thank you for elaborating on this issue, Jonathan and likewise to you ,AW ,for the follow up.

[Adam Went]

Right then, after a phone call to the heritage centre, i'm off on a mission to Swansea tomorrow.....hopefully it will be worth the journey.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

I have returned from my 6 hour drive to Swansea and back with some decent new information, including photos of Dr. Druitt's practice in Swansea (as it was then) and the Anglican church where he apparently preached during his time there, plus some other stuff that might be of interest. Shall post it up tomorrow....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Tracy Ianson]

Hi

Wow, if that is a brief letter I would hate to see him in a deep discussion!

Did this publicity have any neagtive affect on Druitt's reputation, I wonder, after all he had only been a doctor there a year?

[Adam Went]

OK, first up (because i'm not sure i can upload the pictures myself because of the maximum file size allowed....Howard? lol) this is a letter from an in-law of Druitt to the Vicar of the Anglican church in Swansea. I've blocked out all relevant names and addresses, obviously to protect the privacy of those involved.

Note: I converted Adam's PDF just in case some don't have access to Adobe 8.1.
-HB-

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/vic1-1.jpg
http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/vic2-1.jpg

[Adam Went]

I think i've successfully changed the size of the picture, so this is a period photograph of the Anglican church in Swansea, where Druitt was described as a "lay preacher". I had the chance to see this for myself as it's right next door to the heritage centre, and it's more or less unchanged now from how it appears here.

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/IMG_0002.jpg

[Adam Went]

This is Druitt registered in the almanack of 1893 - there is an identical registration in the 1895 edition.

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/IMG_0005.jpg

The second image is from a Swansea pamphlet of 1895 which shows that Dr. Druitt was also on the Swansea Visitors & Tourists Bureau committee.

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/IMG_0010.jpg

[Adam Went]

The first image here is a chronological list of the doctors who practiced at Swansea, both preceding and following Dr. Druitt.

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/d11.jpg

The second image shows some info on the house & land of Dr. Druitt in Swansea, and there's also the obituary for his wife from 1937.

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/Forums%20March%202010/June%202010/d12.jpg

[Adam Went]

And last but certainly not least, this is a period photograph of the practice of Dr. Druitt in Swansea. The building still exists, but it has been somewhat renovated and is now a private residence.

All the information and photos i've posted on here are sourced from the Glamorgan & Spring Bay Historical Society, they've been extremely helpful - this is their website:
http://www.glamorganhistory.org.au/

I'm going to make a couple more phone calls during next week to the University Archives to see if I can track down a photo of Dr. Druitt particularly, or anything else they might have of interest. I'll also be updated if the Historical Society get any fresh info on him, so there may be more to add down the track, but for now I hope you'll all find this interesting.....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

I was going through the notes I took in Swansea and just one last small point to add to the information above, and specifically to the imagine of Dr. Druitt's practice....

At that time, the building was called "Resthaven". The proprietor mentioned in the document above, Mrs. Makepiece, was from Sandy Bay, which is a suburb of Hobart.

Also, the reverend J.E.M. Roach, as mentioned in the piece about the Tourists Bureau, was the reverend for the Anglican Church where Druitt preached (as pictured) from 1892-95.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Chris G.]

Hello Adam

Bravo on this information that you have dug up on Dr. Lionel Druitt's medical practice in Swansea, Tasmania, as well as on his death and his surviving family members. All very fascinating. Keep up the excellent work, Adam.

All the best

Chris

[Adam Went]

Thanks very much for the kind words, Chris.
Again, i'll be kept updated of any new discoveries regarding Dr. Druitt, and will post anything new up on here if and when I hear of it.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Adam,

Hard luck on the cricket (2-3)... but my goodness, congratulations on this find! A little hard work and travel obviously paid dividends.

I admire your tenacity!

best wishes

Phil

(Must admit, wasn't quite awake when I saw the post about a long journey to Swansea, and thought.. what is he doing travelling to Wales? A few secs later and the penny dropped!)

[Adam Went]

Thanks very much, Phil! And no, not quite Swansea in Wales, although at times I felt like I was travelling through the UK.....Perth....Glamorgan...Swansea......can't half tell that we follow after the mother country, eh? ;)

Meanwhile, have dug up a couple more bits and pieces that might be of interest.....

From the Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 1886:

"Shipping: Arrivals - July 1. R.M.S. Lusitania, 8825 tons, Captain J.F. Ruthven, R.N.R., from London via Plymouth May 11, Port Said May 26, Suez May 28, Diego Garcia June 9, Adelaide June 25, and Melbourne June 29. Passengers - From London: Mr. and Mrs. F.O. Pussy and child, Miss W. Evans, Miss Bessie Noble, Dr. Lionel Druitt, Rev. J.F. Jones, Messrs. A.E. Calley, R. Littlejohn, J.J. Dunlop, F. White, 40 in the second saloon, and 182 in the third cabin and steerage.[...]"

So, astonishingly, Druitt was on the R.M.S. Lusitania a full 21 years before "the" R.M.S. Lusitania even existed.....hmm, the plot thickens.... ;)

Also from the Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 1888:

"MARRIAGES:
Druitt-Murray. - April 2, at St. John's Church, Wagga, by the Ven. Archdeacon Pownall, Lionel Druitt, M.D., of Wagga Wagga, youngest son of the late Dr. Robert Druitt, of London, to Susan Cunningham, eldest surviving daughter of Andrew Murray, Esq., of Crieff, Scotland."

A photo of the church can be seen here:
http://www.stjohnswagga.org.au/images/stjohnschurch.jpg

Also, finally, going back to the letter by Lionel Druitt I posted amongst the first things on this thread, just a couple of points:
Dr. Tofft, who he mentions as assisting him, is Dr. Walter Henry Tofft, doctor for Campbell Town, which is approximately 70 kilometres from Swansea. John Cotton, the apparently complainant of Dr. Druitt's practices, was around 60 years old at the time and according to the curator of the history museum with whom I spoke at length, she said that the Cotton family had been treated for quite some time by Dr. Story (see the chronology of Swansea doctors), so the questioning of Druitt's treatments and ability might not have been a reflection so much on what he actually did, but rather being disgruntled by somebody you might term as the "new doctor on the block".

That's all for now!

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

A bit of info on the Lusitania which Dr. Druitt came to Australia on in 1886....doesn't seem there's much to be found of it out there, but as it turns out, the Lusitania, like its much more infamous namesake, was also sunk (well, wrecked anyway) in 1901. A bit of a biography of the ship, plus an account of the wrecking, can be seen in a period newspaper article about it, here:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CEED81139EF32A25754C2A9609C94 6097D6CF

And a painting of it can be seen here:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4987383

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

A few more little bits of information i've come across on Dr. Lionel Druitt:

- Was born in May 1854 (son of Robert Druitt, Monty's Uncle, as previously mentioned.)
- Was nicknamed "Ghost" (not really sure how he came to have that name, perhaps he had an abnormally pale appearance?)
- Became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1875
- Became a master in surgery at Edinburgh in 1877
- At various stages he practiced in Clapham Road and Strathmore Gardens, London, and apparently at one stage lived in The Minories, before emigrating to Australia.

I've submitted an information request to the Archives as well, but have been informed that it may take 6-8 weeks to hear anything back, so shall see how that goes in due course.....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

Behold, I have uncovered the mother lode:

Mrs. Lionel Druitt won an award for a plant she grew at the 1895 Swansea Horticultural Fair.

You read it here first, folks.

Cheers,
Adam.

[How Brown]

Was it an edible plant or one that just smelled purty...or one that you could smoke...?
You've gotta put these details in there,AW !

[Adam Went]

How:

You're right, how shameful of me not to provide the details.....

The article is quite long so I won't transcribe the whole thing, but the list of things Mrs. Druitt won, from The Mercury, November 27, 1895, are as follows:

- Best bowl of roses
- Best plain needlework
- Best pyrography (decorating pieces of wood by burning images into it)
- An award for a cherry wine

That was for the Swansea Horticultural Society Spring Show. Seems like she was quite a handy lady....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

Just to give you all news of another discovery on Dr. Druitt since the writing and publication of "Cousin Lionel", with some very much appreciated assistance down here, we've discovered that at the time of his death in 1908, Lionel Druitt's assets were valued at a total of 2,755 pounds.

Having completed some calculations, in modern terms, that would be around 157,000 pounds - or, because he died in Australia and we ceased to use the old pounds, shillings and pence system in the 1960's - around $250,000 AUD.

So he certainly didn't do too poorly for himself. More details as and when we can update them.... :)

Cheers,
Adam.