The Plan
A
birthday walk
Who Turned Up
Tony and
Beatrice, Sue, Trisha, Jackie, Trudy B, Wendy, David
The Walk
It began
with a late breakfast at Weatherspoons in Wimborne, for very good reasons: we
were anticipating a tasty afternoon tea. Our walk took us around Wimborne,
beginning with the cemetery. We had good reason: we wanted to hear the
historical story about Montague Druitt who is buried there. Tony found the
cemetery registrar who gave us the whole story and then took us into the
cemetery chapel.
Montague
John Druitt (1857 to 1888) was born in Wimborne and was one of the suspects for
the Jack the Ripper murders that took place in London between August and
November 1888. Dreitt was employed as an assistant school master at a boarding
school, but lost the post for reasons that are not easy to discover. There was
talk of him being sexually insane. After the Whitechapel murders, he seems to
have committed suicide and his body was found floating in the Thames.
On 9th
November 2888 Mary Jane Kelly was the fifth girl to be murdered in the East End
of London since August. Shortly after Kelly’s death, stories circulated that
the Ripper had drowned in the Thames. The MP for West Dorset, Henry Farquharson
announced that the Ripper was the son of a surgeon who committed suicide on the
night of the last murder. The description fitted Druitt. In addition, his
pockets contained items which seemed to link him to the killings. After Druitt
died, the Jack the Ripper killings ceased. Now he lies buried in Wimborne cemetery.
That was
an interesting story to start off our afternoon ramble. From there we went on
to the Minster hoping to get into the chained library, but it was closed.
Afternoon Tea
We drove
to Stewarts Garden Centre where we had an excellent afternoon tea to celebrate
Tony’s eightieth birthday. Our thanks go to Beatrice for organising the event
which left us all well replete.
Next Week
Meet at
Sue’s at 10am for an Arne walk.
