The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse: An Extraordinary Edwardian Case of Deception and Intrigue

by Piu Eatwell

Overview

One of the most notorious and bizarre mysteries of the Edwardian age, for readers who loved The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.

In 1898, an elderly widow, Anna Maria Druce, came to the British court with an astonishing request. She stood among the overflowing pews of St. Pauls Cathedral claiming that the merchant T. C. Druce, her late father-in-law, had in truth been a secret identity for none other than the deceased and enormously wealthy 5th Duke of Portland. Maintaining her composure amid growing agitation from the clutch of lawyers, journalists, and curious onlookers crowded into the church, Mrs. Druce claimed that Druce had been the duke's alter ego and that the duke had, in 1864, faked the death of his middle-class doppelgänger when he grew tired of the ruse. Mrs. Druce wanted the tomb unlocked and her father-in-law's coffin exhumed, adamant that it would lie empty, proving the falsehood and leaving her son to inherit the vast Portland estate. From that fateful afternoon, the lurid details of the Druce-Portland case spilled forth, seizing the attention of the British public for over a decade.

As the Victoria era gave way to the Edwardian, the rise of sensationalist media blurred every fact into fiction, and family secrets and fluid identities pushed class anxieties to new heights. The 5th Duke of Portland had long been the victim of suspicion and scandalous rumors; an odd man with a fervent penchant for privacy, he lived his days in precisely coordinated isolation in the dilapidated Welbeck Abbey estate. He constructed elaborate underground passageways from one end of his home to the other and communicated with his household staff through letters. T.C. Druce was a similarly mysterious figure and had always remained startlingly evasive about his origins; on his arrival in London he claimed to have "sprung from the clouds."

Drawing from revelations hidden within the Druce family tomb in the chilly confines of Highgate Cemetery, Piu Marie Eatwell recounts one of the most drawn-out sagas of the era in penetrating, gripping detail. From each thwarted investigation and wicked attempt to conceal evidence to the parade of peculiar figures announcing themselves as the rightful heir, Eatwell paints a portentous portrait of England at the dawn of the Edwardian age.

Few tales—be they by Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins, The Importance of Being Earnest or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—could surpass the bizarre and deliciously dark twists and turns of the Druce-Portland affair. A mesmerizing tour through the tangled hierarchies of Edwardian England, The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse illuminates the lies, deceit, and hypocrisy practiced by "genteel" society at the time—and their inevitably sordid consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631491238
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	10/05/2015
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Piu Eatwell is the author of Black Dahlia, Red Rose and The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse and has produced and researched historical documentaries for the BBC and other channels, including the widely acclaimed film Charles Manson: The Man Who Killed the Sixties. She divides her time between Paris and London with her husband and three children.

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae ix

Act 1 Burial

Scene 1 Welbeck Abbey, December 1879 3

Scene 2 St Paul's Cathedral, March 1898 18

Scene 3 Highgate Cemetery, March 1898 29

Scene 4 Baker Street and Cavendish Square, 1860s 38

Scene 5 The Streets of London, Summer 1898 54

Scene 6 Featherstone Buildings, December 1898 75

Scene 7 The New London Law Courts, Three years later 87

Act 2 Resurrection

Scene 8 Bury St Edmunds, October 1816 105

Scene 9 On Board RMS Oroya, May 1903 120

Scene 10 An Office on London Wall, March 1907 133

Scene 11 Marylebone Police Court, October-December 1907 154

Scene 12 The Druce Vault, December 1907 175

Scene 13 The Police Courts, One week later 185

Act 3 Revelation

Scene 14 London and Welbeck, December 1907 193

Scene 15 London and Worksop, January 1908 201

Scene 16 Holloway Prison, January 1908 216

Scene 17 A London Hotel, September 1898 227

Scene 18 Sledmere House, East Ridings 1870s 241

Scene 19 A Library in Nottingham, October 2013 256

Scene 20 Welbeck Abbey, October 2013 276

Epilogue An Obscure Grave, London, December 2013 290

Postscript 294

2014 Postscript 295

Notes 301

Acknowledgments 327

Select Bibliography 329

Picture Credits 337

Editorial Reviews

"A superb unraveling of a sensational mystery—and an absolutely gripping read."

David King

"A juicy narrative history packed with revelations about unsavory goings-on among the upper classes in late Victorian England."

Boston Globe - Kate Tuttle

"An eccentric duke, a mysterious claimant to the title, a long legal battle to open a grave in pursuit of a huge fortune—it's a thoroughly engrossing story, in the best traditions of Mr. Whicher."

Nicholas Best

"Fusing an excellent historical eye with an engaging narrative…Eatwell's history is equal parts bizarre and literary, presenting the emphasis without bias so that, until the very end, it’s unclear who’s telling the truth. This true crime story would be perfect fodder if Law & Order ever decides to launch a 19th-century spinoff."

BUST

"Madness, guilt, eccentricity, subterfuge—Piu Marie Eatwell's study of the Druce case has it all: the eccentric dukes, liaisons below stairs, extraordinary claims in courts of chancery, exhumations, high-Victorian catacombs, famous detectives. Like all good whodunits, the story of the Duke of Portland and his fortune makes compelling reading."

M. J. Trow

"As the best books in this genre do, Eatwell's narrative expands to give us a broad view of the cultural and social circumstances existing in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries…Her book is also a reminder that no matter what stories have captured popular tastes right now…nothing quite takes your breath away like a Novemberish tale that turns out to be real."

Los Angeles Review of Books - Nick Owchar

"A riveting true crime from yesteryear."

Better Homes & Gardens

09/15/2015
The Victorian and Edwardian eras were not immune to media scandals, as this fantastically detailed new work from Eatwell (They Eat Horses, Don't They?) explores. The excitement starts in 1897 with a court case requesting an exhumation of T.C. Druce, who died in the 1860s, with claims that he was really the Fifth Duke of Portland (complete with wives and children, illegitimate and legitimate), a recluse with purported skin conditions and a mania for building tunnels. Welbeck Abbey, the duke's estate, still boasts miles of underground tunnels, rooms, and passageways for one to move around out of sight. Eatwell's exhaustive investigation into a case that captured the fancy of the press reveals that it was all about inheritance, class status, and, of course, money. There were multiple sets of lawyers involved, the uncovering of secret families of both Druce and the (maybe) duke, and everyone's dirty laundry getting aired in the newspapers, which were rabidly followed by the populace. VERDICT This true crime tale that reads like a novel is recommended for lovers of historical crime stories, Victorian and Edwardian scandals, media history, and historical legal thrillers with many twists. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/15, p. 30.]—Amelia Osterud, Carroll Univ. Lib., Waukesha, WI

Library Journal

2015-05-26
The tale of a sensational trial that riveted Edwardian England for more than a decade. BBC documentary producer Eatwell (They Eat Horses, Don't They: The Truth About the French, 2014, etc.) brings her skills as a researcher and training as a lawyer to this engrossing tale of mystery, lies, and intrigue. Central to the plot is the fifth Duke of Portland, a man of startling eccentricities. Possibly because he suffered from a skin disease, he refused to be seen, even by his servants and household staff, communicating with them by letters left in boxes affixed to each room's door. He built a huge labyrinth of underground tunnels to enable him to travel through his property without detection. In addition, he insisted that newspapers be ironed before handed to him and coins washed. When he died in 1879, his cousin inherited the dukedom and set about revitalizing the house that the duke had left barely furnished and in disrepair. To the sixth duke's surprise, however, in 1897, a widow came forth, petitioning the court to exhume the grave of her father-in-law, a London department store owner. He had not died, she claimed; he really was the fifth duke, who had led a double life and who reverted to his real identity after a coffin was buried, filled not with the remains of her father-in-law but with lead. Her son, therefore, was his real heir. To reveal the outcome of the 10-year legal wrangling would be to spoil Eatwell's cliffhanging narrative. Each chapter ends with a question unresolved, a discovery soon to be made, or a character (there are more than 40) gasping in disbelief. Besides recounting years of subterfuge, media hype, greed, and fraud, Eatwell throws light on Victorian and Edwardian society: aristocratic entitlement and power, numbing poverty, political corruption, and many secret lives.

Kirkus Reviews

"A lively account of the light shone on the lies, deceit and hypocrisy of Victorian society."

Times (London)

"Too good a book to spoil."

Daily Beast