William Gull
Encyclopedia
Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet of Brook Street (31 December 1816 – 29 January 1890) was a prominent 19th century English physician
.
Of modest family origins, he rose through the ranks of the medical profession to establish a lucrative private practice and serve in a number of prominent roles, including Governor of Guy's Hospital
, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and President of the Clinical Society. In 1871, having successfully treated the Prince of Wales
during a life-threatening attack of typhoid fever
, he was created a Baronet and appointed to be one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria
.
Gull is remembered for a number of significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease
, paraplegia
and anorexia nervosa
(for which he first established the name).
Since the 1970s, Gull has been linked to the unsolved 1888 Whitechapel murders (Jack the Ripper
) case. He was named as the murderer during the evolution of the widely discredited Masonic
/royal conspiracy theory outlined in such books as Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Although the conclusions of this theory are now dismissed by most serious scholars
its dramatic nature ensures it remains popular among producers of fictional works, including the 1988 TV film Jack the Ripper
starring Michael Caine
as well as the 1996 graphic novel From Hell
and its subsequent film adaptation
.
. His father, John Gull, was a barge owner and wharfinger and was thirty-eight years old at the time of William's birth. William was born aboard his barge The Dove, then moored at St Osyth Mill in the parish of Saint Leonards. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Chilver and she was forty years old when William was born. William's middle name, Withey, came from his godfather, Captain Withey, a friend and employer of his father and also a local barge owner. He was the youngest of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Of William’s surviving five siblings, two were brothers (John and Joseph) and three were sisters (Elizabeth, Mary and Maria).
When William was about four years old the family moved to Thorpe-le-Soken
, Essex. His father died of cholera in London in 1827, when William was ten years old, and was buried at Thorpe-le-Soken. After her husband's death, Elizabeth Gull devoted herself to her children’s upbringing on very slender means. She was a woman of character, instilling in her children the proverb “whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.” William Gull often said that his real education had been given him by his mother. Elizabeth Gull was devoutly religious - on Fridays the children had fish and rice pudding for dinner; in Lent she wore black, and the Saints' days were carefully observed.
As a young boy, William Gull attended a local day school with his elder sisters. Later, he attended another school in the same parish, kept by the local clergyman. William was a day-boy at this school until he was fifteen, at which age he became a boarder for two years. It was at this time that he first began to study Latin. The clergyman’s teaching, however, seems to have been very limited; and at seventeen William announced that he would not go any longer.
William now became a pupil-teacher in a school kept by a Mr. Abbott at Lewes
, Sussex
. He lived with the schoolmaster and his family, studying and teaching Latin
and Greek
. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Joseph Woods
, the botanist, and formed an interest in looking for unusual plant life that would remain a lifelong pastime. His mother, meanwhile, had in 1832 moved her home to the parish of Beaumont, adjacent to Thorpe-le-Soken. After two years at Lewes, at the age of nineteen, William became restless and started to consider other careers, including working at sea.
The local rector took an interest in William and proposed that he should resume his classical and other studies on alternate days at the rectory. This, for a year, he did. On his days at home he and his sisters would row down the estuary to the sea, watching the fishermen, and collecting wildlife specimens from the nets of the coastal dredgers. William would study and catalogue the specimens thus obtained, which he would study using whatever books as he could then procure. This seems to have awoken in him an interest in biological research that would serve him well in his later career in medicine. The wish to study medicine now became the fixed desire of his life.
At about this time the local rector’s uncle, Benjamin Harrison, the Treasurer of Guy's Hospital, was introduced to Gull and was impressed by his ability. He invited him to go to Guy’s Hospital under his patronage and, in September, 1837, the autumn before he was twenty-one, William Gull left his home and entered upon his life's work.
It was usual for students of medicine to conduct their studies at the hospital as " apprentices." The Treasurer's patronage provided Gull with two rooms in the hospital with an annual allowance of £50 a year.
Gull, encouraged by Harrison, determined to make the most of his opportunity, and resolved to try for every prize for which he could compete in the hospital in the course of that year. He succeeded in gaining every one. During the first year of his residence at Guy's, together with his other studies he carried on his own education in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, and in 1838 he matriculated at the recently founded University of London
. In 1841 he took his M.B. degree, and gained honours in Physiology
, Comparative Anatomy
, Medicine
, and Surgery
.
Throughout this period Gull's various duties gave him extensive opportunities to develop his medical experience. He spent much of his life within the wards of the hospital, at all hours of the day and often at night.
In 1846 he took his M.D. degree at the University of London, and gained the gold medal. At that time this was the highest honour in medicine which the University was able to confer. During his M.D. examination he suffered an an attack of nerves and was about to leave the room, saying that he knew nothing of the case proposed for comment; a friend persuaded him to return, with the result that the thesis he then wrote gained for him his Doctor's degree and the gold medal.
From 1846 to 1856 Dr. Gull held the post of Lecturer on Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at Guy's.
In 1847 Gull was elected Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a post which he held for two years, during which time he formed a close friendship with Michael Faraday
, at that time Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
. In 1848 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was also appointed Resident Physician at Guy's. Dr Gull became a DCL of Oxford in 1868, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869, LLD of the University of Cambridge
in 1880 and of the University of Edinburgh
in 1884. He was a Crown member of the General Medical Council
from 1871 to 1883, and representative of the University of London in the Council from 1886.
They had three children. Caroline Cameron Gull was born in 1851 at Guy’s Hospital and died in 1929; she married Theodore Dyke Acland
MD
(Oxon.
) FRCP
, the son of Sir Henry Acland, 1st Baronet
MD FRS
. They had two children, a daughter (Aimee Sarah Agnes Dyke Acland) who died in infancy in 1889, and a son, Theodore Acland
(1890–1960), who became headmaster of Norwich School
.
Cameron Gull was born about 1858 in Buckhold, Pangbourne
, Berkshire
and died in infancy.
William Cameron Gull
was born on 6 Jan 1860 in Finsbury
, Middlesex
and died in 1922. He was educated at Eton College
, inherited his father’s title as 2nd Baronet of Brook Street, and later served as the Liberal Unionist
Member of Parliament
for Barnstaple
from July 1895 to September 1900.
, Dr. William Gull took the chief direction of the treatment of the Prince during an attack of typhoid fever
.
The Prince of Wales showed the first signs of illness on 13 November 1871, while at the Royal residence at Sandringham
, Norfolk
. Initially, he was attended by Dr. Lowe of Kings Lynn and by Dr Oscar Clayton
, who thought the fever was caused by a sore on a finger. After a week, with no sign of the fever abating, they diagnosed typhoid fever and sent for Gull on 21 November, and Sir William Jenner on the 23rd. It transpired that the typhoid attack was complicated by bronchitis
and the Prince was in danger of his life for many days. For the next month, daily bulletins were issued by Sandringham and posted at police stations around the country. Sir William Hale-White, author of "Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century", writes: "I was a lad then and my father sent me every evening to the police station to get the latest news. It was not until just before Christmas that bulletins were issued only once a day."
The following passage appeared in The Times
on 18 December 1871:
After the Prince's recovery, a service of thanksgiving was held at St Paul's Cathedral
in the City of London
, attended by HM Queen Victoria
. In recognition of his service, on 8 February 1872 William Gull was created the 1st Baronet of the Baronetcy of Brook Street
.
The coat of arms is shown left. The Blazon of Arms is:
The Motto is
Sir William Gull was also appointed Physician-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria. (At this time, there were four Physicians-in-Ordinary to the Queen, each receiving an annual salary of £200. However, these were largely honourary appointments; in reality, the Queen never saw any of them except the senior physician, then Sir William Jenner, and her resident medical attendant.)
Gull was reported as saying that her academic achievements answered any objections to the involvement of women in medicine; and expressed the hope that the scholarship would lead to a liberalisation of attitudes and greater recognition of women across the profession.
The fund was launched with initial donations of £252 9s; Gull’s personal contribution was 10 guineas (£10 10s). By the mid 1890s, the scholarship was able to support a biannual prize of £50, awarded to a graduate of the London School of Medicine for Women, to assist in completing a further stage of studies.
. The attack of hemiplegia
and aphasia
was caused by a cerebral haemorrhage, of which the only warning had been unexplained haemoptysis a few days earlier. He recovered after a few weeks and returned to London; but was under no illusions about the danger to his health, remarking “One arrow had missed its mark, but there are more in the quiver”.
Over the next two years, Gull lived in London, Reigate
and Brighton
, suffering several more strokes. The fatal attack came at his home in 74, Brook Street, London on 27 January 1890. He died two days later.
The Times
newspaper carried the following report on 30 January 1890:
The news of Gull's death was reported around the world. American author Mark Twain
noted in his diary on 1 February 1890:
Sir William Gull was buried on Monday 3 February 1890 next to the grave of his father and mother in the churchyard of his childhood home at Thorpe-le-Soken, near Colchester, Essex. A special train was commissioned to carry mourners from London. The inscription on his headstone was his favourite biblical quote:
The obituary notice in the Proceedings of the Royal Society reads:
A memorial bronze plaque was placed at the entrance to Guy’s Hospital Chapel. The inscription reads:
The vacant position of Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria was filled by Dr. Richard Douglas Powell, the senior of the three Physicians Extraordinary.
The following persons were appointed as executors: his wife, Dame Susan Anne Gull, his son, Sir William Cameron Gull, of Gloucester Street, Portman Square (the new baronet), Mr. Edmund Hobhouse, and Mr. Walter Barry Lindley.
Under the terms of the will, £500 was bequeathed to each of the acting executors; £100 to Miss Mary Jackson; £100 to each of two nieces; £200 to Lady Gull's maid; £50 to Sir William's amanuensis
, Miss Susan Spratt; and an annual sum of £32 10s to his butler, William Brown, for the rest of his life. A jewelled snuffbox presented to Sir William Gull by the Empress Eugénie, widow of Emperor Napoleon III of France became an entailed heirloom, along with his presentation plate.
Lady Gull was bequeathed the remainder of his plate
, his pictures, furniture, and household effects and the sum of £3,000, along with the use for the remainder of her life of the house at 74 Brook Street. She also received a life annuity of £3,000, commencing 12 months after Sir William's death. Sir William's daughter Caroline received £26,000 in trust, while his son Sir William Cameron Gull received the sum of £40,000 and all the real estate.
The residue of Sir William's personal estate was to be held in trust for the purchase of real estate in England or Scotland (but not in Ireland) which was to be added to the entailed estate.
Unusually, the will is recorded twice in the probate registry, in 1890 and in 1897. The text of the second entry reads:
The words "Double Probate Jan 1897" are written in the margin of the entry.
In 1868, he had delivered an address to the British Medical Association
at Oxford
in which he referred to a peculiar form of disease occurring mostly in young women, and characterised by extreme emaciation. Gull observed that the cause of the condition could not be determined, but that cases seemed mainly to occur in young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. In this address, Gull referred to the condition as Apepsia hysterica, but subsequently amended this to Anorexia hysterica and then to Anorexia nervosa.
Five years later, in 1873, Gull published his seminal work “Anorexia Nervosa (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)", in which he describes the three cases of Miss A, Miss B, and a third unnamed case. In 1887, he also recorded the case of Miss K, in what was to be the last of his medical papers to be published.
Miss A was referred to Sir William Gull by her doctor, a Mr Kelson Wright, of Clapham
, London on 17 January 1866. She was aged 17 and was greatly emaciated, having lost 33 pounds. Her weight at this time was 5 stones 12 pounds (82 pounds); her height was 5 ft 5 inches. Gull records that she had suffered from amenorrhoea
for nearly a year, but that otherwise her physical condition was mostly normal, with healthy respiration and heart sounds and pulse; no vomiting nor diarrhoea; clean tongue and normal urine. The pulse was slightly low at between 56 and 60. The condition was that of simple starvation, with total refusal of animal food and almost total refusal of everything else.
Gull prescribed various remedies (including preparations of cinchona, biochloride of mercury, syrup of iodide of iron, syrup of phosphate of iron, citrate of quinine) and variations in diet without noticeable success. He noted occasional voracious appetite for very brief periods, but states that these were very rare and exceptional. He also records that she was frequently restless and active and notes that this was a "striking expression of the nervous state, for it seemed hardly possible that a body so wasted could undergo the exercise which seemed agreeable".
In Gull's published medical papers, images of Miss A are shown that depict her appearance before and after treatment (right). Gull notes her aged appearance at age 17:
Miss A remained under Gull's observation from January 1866 to March 1868, by which time she seemed to have made a full recovery, having gained in weight from 82 to 128 pounds.
Miss B was the second case described in detail by Gull in his Anorexia nervosa paper. She was referred to Gull on 8 October 1868, aged 18, by her family who suspected tuberculosis
and wished to take her to the south of Europe for the coming winter.
Gull noted that her emaciated appearance was more extreme than normally occurs in tubercular cases. His physical examination of her chest and abdomen discovered nothing abnormal, other than a low pulse of 50, but he recorded a "peculiar restlessness" that was difficult to control. The mother advised that "She is never tired". Gull was struck by the similarity of the case to that of Miss A, even to the detail of the pulse and respiration observations.
Miss B was treated by Gull until 1872, by which time a noticeable recovery was underway and eventually complete. Gull admits in his medical papers that the medical treatment probably did not contribute much to the recovery, consisting, as in the former case, of various tonics and a nourishing diet.
Miss K was brought to Gull's attention by a Dr. Leachman, of Petersfield
, in 1887. He notes the details in the last of his medical papers to be published. Miss K was aged 14 years in 1887. She was the third child in a family of six, one of whom died in infancy. Her father had died, aged 68, of pneumonic phthisis. Her mother was living and in good health; she had a sister who displayed various nervous symptoms and an eplieptic nephew. With these exceptions, no other neurotic cases were recorded in the family. Miss K, who was described as a plump, healthy girl until the beginning of 1887, began to refuse all food except half cups of tea or coffee in February that year. She was referred to Gull and began to visit him of 20 April 1887; in his notes, he remarks that she persisted in walking through the streets to his house despite being an object of attention to passers-by. He records that she displayed no sign of organic disease; her respiration was 12 to 14; her pulse was 46; and her temperature was 97º. Her urine was normal. Her weight was 4 stone 7 pounds (63 pounds) and her height was 5 feet 4 inches. Miss K expressed herself to Gull as "quite well". Gull arranged for a nurse from Guy's to supervise her diet, ordering light food every few hours. After six weeks, Dr. Leachman reported good progress and by 27 July her mother reported that her recovery was almost complete, with the nurse by this time no longer being needed.
Photographs of Miss K appear in Gull's published papers. The first is dated 21 April 1887 and shows the subject in a state of extreme emaciation. The unclothed torso and head is displayed with the ribcage and clavicle clearly visible. The second photograph is dated 14 June 1887 in a similar attitude and shows a clear recovery.
Although the cases of Miss A, Miss B and Miss K resulted in recovery, Gull states that he observed at least one fatality as a result of anorexia nervosa. He states that the post mortem revealed no physical abnormalities other than thrombosis of the femoral veins. Death appeared to have resulted from starvation alone.
Gull observed that slow pulse and respiration seemed to be common factors in all the cases he had observed. He also observed that this resulted in below-normal body temperature and proposed the application of external heat as a possible treatment. This proposal is still debated by scientists today.
Gull also recommended that food should be administered at intervals varying inversely with the periods of exhaustion and emaciation. He believed that the inclination of the patient should in no way be consulted; and that the tendency of the medical attendant to indulge the patient ("Let her do as she likes. Don't force food."), particularly in the early stages of the condition, was dangerous and should be discouraged. Gull states that he formed this opinion after experience of dealing with cases of anoerexia nervosa, having previously himself been inclined to indulge patients' wishes.
.
The symptoms of Bright's Disease had been described in 1827 by the English physician Richard Bright
who, like Gull, was based at Guy's Hospital. Dr. Bright's work characterised the symptoms as caused by a disease centred on the kidney. Chronic Bright's disease was a more severe variant, where other organs are also affected.
In their introduction, Gull and Sutton point out that Dr. Bright and others have fully recognised that the granular contracted kidney is usually associated with morbid changes in other organs of the body and that these co-existent changes were commonly grouped together and termed "chronic Bright's disease." The prevailing opinion at the time was that the kidney was the organ primarily affected, inducing a condition that would spread to other parts of the body and thereby cause other organs to suffer.
Gull and Sutton argued that this assumption was incorrect. They presented evidence to show that the diseased state could also originate in other organs, and that the deterioration of the kidney is part of the general morbid change, rather than the primary cause. In some cases examined by Gull and Sutton, the kidney was only marginally affected while the condition was far more advanced in other organs.
Gull and Sutton's main conclusion was that the morbid change in the arteries and capilleries was the primary and essential condition of the morbid state known as chronic Bright's disease with contracted kidney. They stated that the clinical history may vary according to the organs primarily and chiefly affected; the condition could not be expected to follow a simple and predictable pattern.
The background to Gull's work was research performed by Claude Bernard
in 1855 around the concept of the Milieu intérieur
and subsequently by Moritz Schiff
in Bern in 1859, and who showed that thyroidectomy
in dogs invariably proved fatal; Schiff later showed that grafts or injections of thyroid reversed the symptoms in both thyroidectomised animals and humans. He thought the thyroid liberated some important substance into the blood. Three years earlier, Charles Hilton Fagge
, also of Guy's Hospital, had produced a paper on 'sporadic cretinism'.
Gull's paper related the symptoms and changed appearance of a Miss B:
"After the cessation of the catamenial period, became insensibly more and more languid, with general increase of bulk ... Her face altering from oval to round ... the tongue broad and thick, voice guttural, and the pronunciation as if the tongue were too large for the mouth (cretinoid) ... In the cretinoid condition in adults which I have seen, the thyroid was not enlarged ... There had been a distinct change in the mental state. The mind, which had previously been active and inquisitive, assumed a gentle, placid indifference, corresponding to the muscular languor, but the intellect was unimpaired ... The change in the skin is remarkable. The texture being peculiarly smooth and fine, and the complexion fair, at a first hasty glance there might be supposed to be a general slight oedema of it ... The beautiful delicate rose-purple tint on the cheek is entirely different from what one sees in the bloated face of renal anasarca."
A few years later, in 1888, this condition would be named myxoedema by W.M. Ord.
is a condition usually resulting from injury to the spinal cord
. This was a long term interest of Gull's dating back at least to his three Goulstonian lectures of 1848, titled "On the nervous system", "Paraplegia" and "Cervical paraplegia - hemiplegia".
Gull divided paraplegia into three groups: spinal, peripheral, and encephalic, where the spinal group related to paralyses caused by damage to the spinal cord; the peripheral group comprised disorders that occur when multiple parts of the nervous system fail simultaneously; and the encephalic group comprised partial paralyses caused by a failure of the central nervous system, possibly possibly related to failure of the blood supply or a syphilitic condition.
Gull's main work on paraplegia was published between 1856 and 1858. Along with the French neurologist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard
, his work
enabled paraplegic symptoms to be understood in context with the prevailing, limited understanding of spinal cord pathology, for the first time. He presented a series of 32 cases, including autopsies in 29 instances, to correlate the clinical and pathological features.
He acknowledged, however, that nothing was more difficult than "the determination at the bedside, of the causes". Pathologically softening and inflammation were sometimes evident, but in many instances no obvious aetiology was found. One might have to seek for 'atomical' as distinguished from 'anatomical' causes, he speculated. He described two types of partial lesions, one confined to a segment of the spinal cord, the other extending longitudinally in one of its columns. He noticed and was puzzled by degenerations of the posterior columns that could cause an 'inability to regulate motor power'.
Gull recognised girdle pain as seldom absent from extrinsic compression, often signifying meningeal involvement. Paralysis of the lower extremities could, he thought, be consequent upon diseases of the bladder and kidneys ('urinary paraplegia'). The bladder infection was the source of inflammatory phlebitis extending from pelvic to spinal veins.
Meningitis with myelitis was found and attributed to exposure to cold or fatigue.
In five traumatic cases, the vertebral column was often but not invariably fractured and could compress the cord. He recorded one instance in a 33-year-old woman of a thoracic disk prolapse compressing the cord, without evident trauma. Tumours also figured in seven of his 32 patients; two were metastatic from kidney and lung. Two had intramedullary cervical tumours, and one, a Guy's Hospital nurse, probably had a cystic astrocytoma.
Earlier work by the Irish physician Robert Bentley Todd
(1847), Ernest Horn, and Moritz Heinrich Romberg
(1851) had described Tabes dorsalis
and noted atrophy of the spinal cord, but in an important paper, Gull also stressed the involvement of the posterior column in paraplegia with sensory ataxia [12].
"That the course of nature may be varied we have assumed by our meeting here today. The whole object of the science of medicine is based on this assumption"
British Medical Journal, 1874, 2: 425.
"I do not know what a brain is, and I do not know what sleep is, but I do know that a well-fed brain sleeps well"
Quoted in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, 1916, 52: 45.
"The foundation of the study of Medicine, as of all scientific inquiry, lies in the belief that every natural phenomenon, trifling as it may seem, has a fixed and invariable meaning"
Published Writings, «Study of Medicine»
"If facts be nature’s words, our words should be true sign of nature's facts. A word rightly imposed is a landmark indicating so much recovered from the region of ignorance"
Published Writings, Volume 156, «Study of Medicine»
"Never forget that it is not a pneumonia, but a pneumonic man who is your patient. Not a typhoid fever, but a typhoid man"
Published Writings (edited by T. D. Acland), Memoir II.
"Realize, if you can, what a paralyzing influence on all scientific inquiry the ancient belief must have had which attributed the operations of nature to the caprice not of one divinity, but of many. There still remains vestiges of this in most of our minds, and the more distinct in proportion to our weakness and ignorance."
British Medical Journal, 1874, 2: 425.
“Jack the Ripper” murders of 1888. These are usually (though not always) associated with variants of conspiracy theories involving the Royal Family and the Freemasons.
The first article appeared in the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel (24 April 1895), the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette (25 April 1895) and the Ogden Standard, Utah
. It reported an alleged conversation between William Greer Harrison
, a prominent San Francisco citizen, and a Dr Howard of London. According to Howard, the murderer was a "medical man of high standing" whose wife had become alarmed by his erratic behaviour during the period of the Whitechapel murders. She conveyed her suspicions to some of her husband's medical colleagues who, after interviewing him and searching the house, "found ample proofs of murder" and committed him to an asylum.
Variations of the second article appeared in the Williamsport Sunday Grit (12 May 1895); the Hayward
Review, California
(17 May 1895); and the Brooklyn
Daily Eagle (28 December 1897). This article comments that "the identity of that incarnate fiend was settled some time ago" and that the murderer was "a demented physician afflicted with wildly uncontrollable erotic mania." It repeats some of the details in the earlier report, adding that Dr Howard "was one of a dozen London physicians who sat as a commission in lunacy upon their brother physician, for at last it was definitely proved that the dread Jack the Ripper was a physician in high standing and enjoying the patronage of the best society in the West End of London." The article goes on to allege that the preacher and spiritualist Robert James Lees
played a leading role in the physician’s arrest by using his clairvoyant powers to divine that the Whitechapel murderer lived in a house in Mayfair. He persuaded police to enter the house, the home of a distinguished physician, who was allegedly removed to a private insane asylum in Islington
under the name of "Thomas Mason". Meanwhile the disappearance of the physician was explained by announcing his death and faking a funeral – "an empty coffin, which now reposes in the family vaults in Kensal Green
, is supposed to contain the mortal remains of a great West End physician, whose untimely death all London mourned." (This detail does not correspond with Sir William Gull, who was buried in the churchyard at Thorpe-le-Soken
in Essex.)
The identity of the Dr Howard who is alleged to have provided the information for the first article was never established. On 2 May 1895, the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette published a follow-up quoting William Greer [sic] as reaffirming the accuracy of the story, and describing Dr. Howard as a "well-known London physician who passed through San Francisco on a tour of the world several months ago". A further follow-up article in the London People on 19 May 1895, written by Joseph Hatton, identified him as Dr. Benjamin Howard, an American doctor who had practised in London during the late 1880s. The article was shown to Dr. Benjamin Howard on a return visit to London in January 1896, prompting a strong letter of denial published in The People on 26 January 1896:
, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.S. published an article in The Criminologist
, Vol. 5 No. 18, November 1970, titled "'Jack the Ripper' - A Solution?"
Stowell was a junior colleague to Dr Theodore Dyke Acland, Gull’s son-in-law. He alleges that one of Gull’s patients was the Whitechapel murderer. He refers to the killer as “S” throughout the article without ever identifying him, but the identity of “S” is widely presumed to be Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, HM Queen Victoria
's grandson and heir presumptive to the throne. Stowell writes,
Stowell apparently devised his theory using Sir William Gull’s private papers as his primary source material. However, this cannot be confirmed as Stowell died a few days after publishing his article and his family burned his papers. Gull (who was named in the article) supposedly left papers showing that “S” had not died of pneumonia, as had been reported, but of tertiary syphilis. Stowell states that “S” caught syphilis in the West Indies while touring the world in his late teens and it was this illness that brought on a state of insanity which led to the murders.
He goes on to allege that “S” was certified insane by Gull and placed in a private mental home, from which he escaped and committed the last, and most brutal, murder of Mary Jane Kelly in November 1888. He then recovered sufficiently to take a five month cruise before his relapse and death "in his father's country house" of "bronchopneumonia."
broadcast Jack the Ripper, a six-part mini-series in the docudrama format. The series, scripted by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd, used fictional detectives Detective Chief Inspector Charles Barlow and Detective Inspector John Watt from the police drama Softly, Softly
to portray an investigation into the Whitechapel murders.
The series did not reach a single conclusion, but is significant for its inclusion of the first public airing of a story propounded by Joseph “Hobo” Sickert, alleged illegitimate son of artist Walter Sickert
. This theory alleges that the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, conspired with HM Queen Victoria
and senior Freemasons, including senior police officers, to murder a number of women with knowledge of an illegitimate Catholic heir to the throne sired by Prince Albert Victor. According to this theory, the murders were carried out by Sir William Gull with the assistance of a coachman, John Netley
. Sickert himself later retracted the story, in an interview with the London Sunday Times on 18 June 1978. He is quoted as saying, "It was a hoax; I made it all up" and, it was "a whopping fib.".
who interviewed Joseph Sickert following the BBC series. He was sufficiently convinced by the story to write a book - Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution - which proposes the Sickert story as its central conclusion. The book provides the inspiration for a number of fictional works related to the Whitechapel murderers.
Knight undertook his own research, which established that there really was a coachman named John Netley; that an unnamed child was knocked down in the Strand in October 1888 and that a man named “Nickley” attempted suicide by drowning from Westminster Bridge in 1892. He was also provided with access to Home Office
files, from which a number of contemporary police reports were made public for the first time.
Knight's claim that Sir William Gull, along with various others were all high ranking Freemasons, is disputed. Knight writes:
This claim is refuted by John Hamill, former Librarian for the Freemasons’ United Grand Lodge of England (subsequently the Director of Communications). Hamill writes:
, starring Christopher Plummer
as Sherlock Holmes
and James Mason
as Doctor Watson. Sir Thomas Spivey, a Royal physician whose character is based on Sir William Gull, is revealed as the murderer in a plotline based on Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Spivey is depicted as assisted by a character named William Slade, himself based on John Netley
.
A fictionalised Sir William Gull appears in Iain Sinclair
's 1987 novel White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings in a plotline based on Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution.
Sir William Gull is portrayed by Ray McAnally
in 1988 in a TV dramatisation of the murders
, starring Michael Caine
and Jane Seymour
. The plotline reveals Sir William Gull as the murderer, assisted by coachman John Netley, but otherwise excludes the main elements of the Royal conspiracy theory.
From 1991 to 1996, a fictionalized Sir William Gull is featured in the graphic novel From Hell
by writer Alan Moore
and artist Eddie Campbell
. The plotline depicts Sir William Gull as the murderer and takes Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. as its premise. Eddie Campbell records in his blog, that
The story "Royal Blood" told in John Constantine
Hellblazer
(1992, DC Comics
) mentions Jack the Ripper being Sir William Gull possessed by a demon called Calibraxis.
The fictional character "Sir Nigel Gull" appears in the 1993 novel The List of Seven
by Mark Frost
. "Sir Nigel Gull" is depicted as a Royal physician and appears to be based on Sir William Gull. The plotline has an occult theme that features Prince Edward, Duke of Clarence but does not reference the Whitechapel murders.
In a 2001 film adaptation of the graphic novel From Hell
, Sir William Gull is portrayed by Sir Ian Holm
.
Actor Peter Penry-Jones
portrays Sir William Gull in 2004's Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder - The Case of Charles Bravo – a dramatised documentary investigating the unsolved murder of barrister Charles Bravo
in 1876.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
.
Of modest family origins, he rose through the ranks of the medical profession to establish a lucrative private practice and serve in a number of prominent roles, including Governor of Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...
, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and President of the Clinical Society. In 1871, having successfully treated the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
during a life-threatening attack of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, he was created a Baronet and appointed to be one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
.
Gull is remembered for a number of significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
, paraplegia
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...
and anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
(for which he first established the name).
Since the 1970s, Gull has been linked to the unsolved 1888 Whitechapel murders (Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
) case. He was named as the murderer during the evolution of the widely discredited Masonic
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
/royal conspiracy theory outlined in such books as Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Although the conclusions of this theory are now dismissed by most serious scholars
its dramatic nature ensures it remains popular among producers of fictional works, including the 1988 TV film Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper (1988 TV series)
Jack the Ripper is a 1988 four-part television movie/mini-series portraying a fictionalized account of the hunt for Jack the Ripper, the unidentified serial killer responsible for the Whitechapel murders of 1888...
starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
as well as the 1996 graphic novel From Hell
From Hell
From Hell is a comic book series by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published from 1991 to 1996, speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic...
and its subsequent film adaptation
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...
.
Childhood and early life
William Withey Gull was born on 31 December 1816 at Colchester, EssexEssex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. His father, John Gull, was a barge owner and wharfinger and was thirty-eight years old at the time of William's birth. William was born aboard his barge The Dove, then moored at St Osyth Mill in the parish of Saint Leonards. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Chilver and she was forty years old when William was born. William's middle name, Withey, came from his godfather, Captain Withey, a friend and employer of his father and also a local barge owner. He was the youngest of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Of William’s surviving five siblings, two were brothers (John and Joseph) and three were sisters (Elizabeth, Mary and Maria).
When William was about four years old the family moved to Thorpe-le-Soken
Thorpe-le-Soken
Thorpe-le-Soken is a village in Essex, located west of Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea and north of Clacton-on-Sea.-History:Thorpe-le-Soken's history can be traced back to Saxon times....
, Essex. His father died of cholera in London in 1827, when William was ten years old, and was buried at Thorpe-le-Soken. After her husband's death, Elizabeth Gull devoted herself to her children’s upbringing on very slender means. She was a woman of character, instilling in her children the proverb “whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.” William Gull often said that his real education had been given him by his mother. Elizabeth Gull was devoutly religious - on Fridays the children had fish and rice pudding for dinner; in Lent she wore black, and the Saints' days were carefully observed.
As a young boy, William Gull attended a local day school with his elder sisters. Later, he attended another school in the same parish, kept by the local clergyman. William was a day-boy at this school until he was fifteen, at which age he became a boarder for two years. It was at this time that he first began to study Latin. The clergyman’s teaching, however, seems to have been very limited; and at seventeen William announced that he would not go any longer.
William now became a pupil-teacher in a school kept by a Mr. Abbott at Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. He lived with the schoolmaster and his family, studying and teaching Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Joseph Woods
Joseph Woods
Joseph Woods FLS FGS 24 August 1776-1864 was an English Quaker architect, botanist and geologist born in the village of Stoke Newington, a few miles north of the City of London...
, the botanist, and formed an interest in looking for unusual plant life that would remain a lifelong pastime. His mother, meanwhile, had in 1832 moved her home to the parish of Beaumont, adjacent to Thorpe-le-Soken. After two years at Lewes, at the age of nineteen, William became restless and started to consider other careers, including working at sea.
The local rector took an interest in William and proposed that he should resume his classical and other studies on alternate days at the rectory. This, for a year, he did. On his days at home he and his sisters would row down the estuary to the sea, watching the fishermen, and collecting wildlife specimens from the nets of the coastal dredgers. William would study and catalogue the specimens thus obtained, which he would study using whatever books as he could then procure. This seems to have awoken in him an interest in biological research that would serve him well in his later career in medicine. The wish to study medicine now became the fixed desire of his life.
Early career in medicine
It was usual for students of medicine to conduct their studies at the hospital as " apprentices." The Treasurer's patronage provided Gull with two rooms in the hospital with an annual allowance of £50 a year.
Gull, encouraged by Harrison, determined to make the most of his opportunity, and resolved to try for every prize for which he could compete in the hospital in the course of that year. He succeeded in gaining every one. During the first year of his residence at Guy's, together with his other studies he carried on his own education in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, and in 1838 he matriculated at the recently founded University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. In 1841 he took his M.B. degree, and gained honours in Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, Comparative Anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
, Medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and Surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
.
Professional career
In 1842 Gull was appointed to teach Materia Medica at Guy's Hospital, and the Treasurer gave him a small house in King Street, with an annual salary of £100. In 1843 he was appointed Lecturer on Natural Philosophy. He also held at this time the post of Medical Tutor at Guy's and, in the absence of the staff, shared with Mr. Stocker the care of the patients in the hospital. In the same year he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the wards for lunatics, and it was largely due to his influence that these cases shortly ceased to be treated at the hospital, and the wards were converted from this use.Throughout this period Gull's various duties gave him extensive opportunities to develop his medical experience. He spent much of his life within the wards of the hospital, at all hours of the day and often at night.
In 1846 he took his M.D. degree at the University of London, and gained the gold medal. At that time this was the highest honour in medicine which the University was able to confer. During his M.D. examination he suffered an an attack of nerves and was about to leave the room, saying that he knew nothing of the case proposed for comment; a friend persuaded him to return, with the result that the thesis he then wrote gained for him his Doctor's degree and the gold medal.
From 1846 to 1856 Dr. Gull held the post of Lecturer on Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at Guy's.
In 1847 Gull was elected Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a post which he held for two years, during which time he formed a close friendship with Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
, at that time Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
The Fullerian Chairs at the Royal Institution were established by John 'Mad Jack' Fuller.-Fullerian Professors of Chemistry:*1833 Michael Faraday* 1868 William Odling* 1874 John Hall Gladstone* 1877 James Dewar* 1923 William Henry Bragg* 1942 Henry H...
. In 1848 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was also appointed Resident Physician at Guy's. Dr Gull became a DCL of Oxford in 1868, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869, LLD of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in 1880 and of the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
in 1884. He was a Crown member of the General Medical Council
General Medical Council
The General Medical Council registers and regulates doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It has the power to revoke or restrict a doctor's registration if it deems them unfit to practise...
from 1871 to 1883, and representative of the University of London in the Council from 1886.
Marriage and family
On 18 May 1848, Dr. Gull married Susan Ann Lacy, daughter of Colonel J. Dacre Lacy, of Carlisle. Shortly afterwards he left his rooms at Guy’s and moved to 8 Finsbury Square.They had three children. Caroline Cameron Gull was born in 1851 at Guy’s Hospital and died in 1929; she married Theodore Dyke Acland
Theodore Dyke Acland
Theodore Dyke Acland MD, FRCP, FRCS was a British physician, surgeon and author and was the son-in-law of Sir William Gull, a leading London medical practitioner and one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria...
MD
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
(Oxon.
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
) FRCP
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
, the son of Sir Henry Acland, 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Acland, 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland, 1st Baronet, KCB . was an English physician and educator.He was born in Killerton, Exeter, the fourth son of Sir Thomas Acland and Lydia Elizabeth Hoare, and educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in...
MD FRS
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
. They had two children, a daughter (Aimee Sarah Agnes Dyke Acland) who died in infancy in 1889, and a son, Theodore Acland
Theodore Acland
Theodore William Gull Acland ARIC was an English educationist who in later life became a clergyman of the Church of England.-Background and early life:...
(1890–1960), who became headmaster of Norwich School
Norwich School (educational institution)
Norwich School is an independent school located in Norwich, United Kingdom. It is one of the oldest schools in the world, with a traceable history to 1096, and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.It is a fee-paying, co-educational day school and has one of the best...
.
Cameron Gull was born about 1858 in Buckhold, Pangbourne
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire. Pangbourne is the home of the independent school, Pangbourne College.-Location:...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
and died in infancy.
William Cameron Gull
Sir William Cameron Gull, 2nd Baronet
Sir William Cameron Gull, 2nd Baronet , known as Sir Cameron Gull, was a leading barrister and Liberal Unionist Party politician in England, who served for five years as a Member of Parliament .- Early life :...
was born on 6 Jan 1860 in Finsbury
Finsbury
Finsbury is a district of central London, England. It lies immediately north of the City of London and Clerkenwell, west of Shoreditch, and south of Islington and City Road. It is in the south of the London Borough of Islington. The Finsbury Estate is in the western part of the district...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
and died in 1922. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, inherited his father’s title as 2nd Baronet of Brook Street, and later served as the Liberal Unionist
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Barnstaple
Barnstaple (UK Parliament constituency)
Barnstaple was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Barnstaple in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member.The constituency...
from July 1895 to September 1900.
Baronet and Physician-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria
In 1871, as Physician in Ordinary to HRH the Prince of WalesEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, Dr. William Gull took the chief direction of the treatment of the Prince during an attack of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
.
The Prince of Wales showed the first signs of illness on 13 November 1871, while at the Royal residence at Sandringham
Sandringham
Sandringham can refer to:Places*Sandringham, Johannesburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa*Sandringham, Norfolk, a village in Norfolk, England*Sandringham House in the aforementioned village, owned by the British Royal Family...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. Initially, he was attended by Dr. Lowe of Kings Lynn and by Dr Oscar Clayton
Oscar Clayton
Sir Oscar Moore Passey Clayton, KCMG, CB, FRCS was a British surgeon, courtier, and socialite. He was Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Extra Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, and Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police and other bodies.-Early...
, who thought the fever was caused by a sore on a finger. After a week, with no sign of the fever abating, they diagnosed typhoid fever and sent for Gull on 21 November, and Sir William Jenner on the 23rd. It transpired that the typhoid attack was complicated by bronchitis
Bronchitis
Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks. Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways...
and the Prince was in danger of his life for many days. For the next month, daily bulletins were issued by Sandringham and posted at police stations around the country. Sir William Hale-White, author of "Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century", writes: "I was a lad then and my father sent me every evening to the police station to get the latest news. It was not until just before Christmas that bulletins were issued only once a day."
The following passage appeared in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on 18 December 1871:
After the Prince's recovery, a service of thanksgiving was held at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, attended by HM Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. In recognition of his service, on 8 February 1872 William Gull was created the 1st Baronet of the Baronetcy of Brook Street
Gull Baronets
The Gull Baronetcy, of Brook Street, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 February 1872 for the physician William Gull. The baronetcy was conferred on him for his services to the Prince of Wales during his severe illness in the winter of 1871...
.
The coat of arms is shown left. The Blazon of Arms is:
The Motto is
Sir William Gull was also appointed Physician-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria. (At this time, there were four Physicians-in-Ordinary to the Queen, each receiving an annual salary of £200. However, these were largely honourary appointments; in reality, the Queen never saw any of them except the senior physician, then Sir William Jenner, and her resident medical attendant.)
Support for women in medicine
In late Victorian Britain, women were not encouraged to enter the medical profession. Sir William Gull spoke out against this bias and led efforts to improve the prospects of women who wished to pursue careers in medicine. In February 1886, he chaired a meeting at the Medical Society in Cavendish Square to establish a medical scholarship to be awarded to women. This was the Helen Prideaux Memorial fund, named after Frances Helen Prideaux M.B and B.S. Lond, a gifted University of London medical student who had died from diphtheria the previous year, having previously won the exhibition and gold medal in anatomy and gained a first class degree.Gull was reported as saying that her academic achievements answered any objections to the involvement of women in medicine; and expressed the hope that the scholarship would lead to a liberalisation of attitudes and greater recognition of women across the profession.
The fund was launched with initial donations of £252 9s; Gull’s personal contribution was 10 guineas (£10 10s). By the mid 1890s, the scholarship was able to support a biannual prize of £50, awarded to a graduate of the London School of Medicine for Women, to assist in completing a further stage of studies.
Illness and death
In 1887, Sir William Gull suffered the first of several strokes at his Scottish home at Urrard House, KilliecrankieKilliecrankie
Killiecrankie is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland on the River Garry. It lies at the Pass of Killiecrankie, by the A9 road. The village is home to a power station forming part of the Tummel Hydro-Electric Power Scheme...
. The attack of hemiplegia
Hemiplegia
Hemiplegia /he.mə.pliː.dʒiə/ is total paralysis of the arm, leg, and trunk on the same side of the body. Hemiplegia is more severe than hemiparesis, wherein one half of the body has less marked weakness....
and aphasia
Aphasia
Aphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....
was caused by a cerebral haemorrhage, of which the only warning had been unexplained haemoptysis a few days earlier. He recovered after a few weeks and returned to London; but was under no illusions about the danger to his health, remarking “One arrow had missed its mark, but there are more in the quiver”.
Over the next two years, Gull lived in London, Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, suffering several more strokes. The fatal attack came at his home in 74, Brook Street, London on 27 January 1890. He died two days later.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper carried the following report on 30 January 1890:
The news of Gull's death was reported around the world. American author Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
noted in his diary on 1 February 1890:
Sir William Gull was buried on Monday 3 February 1890 next to the grave of his father and mother in the churchyard of his childhood home at Thorpe-le-Soken, near Colchester, Essex. A special train was commissioned to carry mourners from London. The inscription on his headstone was his favourite biblical quote:
The obituary notice in the Proceedings of the Royal Society reads:
A memorial bronze plaque was placed at the entrance to Guy’s Hospital Chapel. The inscription reads:
The vacant position of Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria was filled by Dr. Richard Douglas Powell, the senior of the three Physicians Extraordinary.
Will, executors and bequests
Sir William Gull's will, with a codicil, was dated 27 November 1888. The value of the estate was £344,022 19s. 7d - an enormous sum at that time.The following persons were appointed as executors: his wife, Dame Susan Anne Gull, his son, Sir William Cameron Gull, of Gloucester Street, Portman Square (the new baronet), Mr. Edmund Hobhouse, and Mr. Walter Barry Lindley.
Under the terms of the will, £500 was bequeathed to each of the acting executors; £100 to Miss Mary Jackson; £100 to each of two nieces; £200 to Lady Gull's maid; £50 to Sir William's amanuensis
Amanuensis
Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...
, Miss Susan Spratt; and an annual sum of £32 10s to his butler, William Brown, for the rest of his life. A jewelled snuffbox presented to Sir William Gull by the Empress Eugénie, widow of Emperor Napoleon III of France became an entailed heirloom, along with his presentation plate.
Lady Gull was bequeathed the remainder of his plate
Silver (household)
Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...
, his pictures, furniture, and household effects and the sum of £3,000, along with the use for the remainder of her life of the house at 74 Brook Street. She also received a life annuity of £3,000, commencing 12 months after Sir William's death. Sir William's daughter Caroline received £26,000 in trust, while his son Sir William Cameron Gull received the sum of £40,000 and all the real estate.
The residue of Sir William's personal estate was to be held in trust for the purchase of real estate in England or Scotland (but not in Ireland) which was to be added to the entailed estate.
Unusually, the will is recorded twice in the probate registry, in 1890 and in 1897. The text of the second entry reads:
The words "Double Probate Jan 1897" are written in the margin of the entry.
Anorexia nervosa
The term anorexia nervosa was first established by Sir William Gull in 1873.In 1868, he had delivered an address to the British Medical Association
British Medical Association
The British Medical Association is the professional association and registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association’s headquarters are located in BMA House,...
at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in which he referred to a peculiar form of disease occurring mostly in young women, and characterised by extreme emaciation. Gull observed that the cause of the condition could not be determined, but that cases seemed mainly to occur in young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. In this address, Gull referred to the condition as Apepsia hysterica, but subsequently amended this to Anorexia hysterica and then to Anorexia nervosa.
Five years later, in 1873, Gull published his seminal work “Anorexia Nervosa (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)", in which he describes the three cases of Miss A, Miss B, and a third unnamed case. In 1887, he also recorded the case of Miss K, in what was to be the last of his medical papers to be published.
Miss A was referred to Sir William Gull by her doctor, a Mr Kelson Wright, of Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
, London on 17 January 1866. She was aged 17 and was greatly emaciated, having lost 33 pounds. Her weight at this time was 5 stones 12 pounds (82 pounds); her height was 5 ft 5 inches. Gull records that she had suffered from amenorrhoea
Amenorrhoea
Amenorrhoea , amenorrhea , or amenorrhœa, is the absence of a menstrual period in a woman of reproductive age. Physiological states of amenorrhoea are seen during pregnancy and lactation , the latter also forming the basis of a form of contraception known as the lactational amenorrhoea method...
for nearly a year, but that otherwise her physical condition was mostly normal, with healthy respiration and heart sounds and pulse; no vomiting nor diarrhoea; clean tongue and normal urine. The pulse was slightly low at between 56 and 60. The condition was that of simple starvation, with total refusal of animal food and almost total refusal of everything else.
Gull prescribed various remedies (including preparations of cinchona, biochloride of mercury, syrup of iodide of iron, syrup of phosphate of iron, citrate of quinine) and variations in diet without noticeable success. He noted occasional voracious appetite for very brief periods, but states that these were very rare and exceptional. He also records that she was frequently restless and active and notes that this was a "striking expression of the nervous state, for it seemed hardly possible that a body so wasted could undergo the exercise which seemed agreeable".
In Gull's published medical papers, images of Miss A are shown that depict her appearance before and after treatment (right). Gull notes her aged appearance at age 17:
It will be noticeable that as she recovered she had a much younger look, corresponding indeed to her age, twenty-one; whilst the photographs, taken when she was seventeen, give her the appearance of being nearer thirty.
Miss A remained under Gull's observation from January 1866 to March 1868, by which time she seemed to have made a full recovery, having gained in weight from 82 to 128 pounds.
Miss B was the second case described in detail by Gull in his Anorexia nervosa paper. She was referred to Gull on 8 October 1868, aged 18, by her family who suspected tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and wished to take her to the south of Europe for the coming winter.
Gull noted that her emaciated appearance was more extreme than normally occurs in tubercular cases. His physical examination of her chest and abdomen discovered nothing abnormal, other than a low pulse of 50, but he recorded a "peculiar restlessness" that was difficult to control. The mother advised that "She is never tired". Gull was struck by the similarity of the case to that of Miss A, even to the detail of the pulse and respiration observations.
Miss B was treated by Gull until 1872, by which time a noticeable recovery was underway and eventually complete. Gull admits in his medical papers that the medical treatment probably did not contribute much to the recovery, consisting, as in the former case, of various tonics and a nourishing diet.
Miss K was brought to Gull's attention by a Dr. Leachman, of Petersfield
Petersfield
Petersfield can refer to any of the following places:*Petersfield, Hampshire, a market town in England*Petersfield, Jamaica, a small town in the parish of Westmoreland*Petersfield, Manitoba, in Canada*Petersfield, an area of Cambridge, England...
, in 1887. He notes the details in the last of his medical papers to be published. Miss K was aged 14 years in 1887. She was the third child in a family of six, one of whom died in infancy. Her father had died, aged 68, of pneumonic phthisis. Her mother was living and in good health; she had a sister who displayed various nervous symptoms and an eplieptic nephew. With these exceptions, no other neurotic cases were recorded in the family. Miss K, who was described as a plump, healthy girl until the beginning of 1887, began to refuse all food except half cups of tea or coffee in February that year. She was referred to Gull and began to visit him of 20 April 1887; in his notes, he remarks that she persisted in walking through the streets to his house despite being an object of attention to passers-by. He records that she displayed no sign of organic disease; her respiration was 12 to 14; her pulse was 46; and her temperature was 97º. Her urine was normal. Her weight was 4 stone 7 pounds (63 pounds) and her height was 5 feet 4 inches. Miss K expressed herself to Gull as "quite well". Gull arranged for a nurse from Guy's to supervise her diet, ordering light food every few hours. After six weeks, Dr. Leachman reported good progress and by 27 July her mother reported that her recovery was almost complete, with the nurse by this time no longer being needed.
Photographs of Miss K appear in Gull's published papers. The first is dated 21 April 1887 and shows the subject in a state of extreme emaciation. The unclothed torso and head is displayed with the ribcage and clavicle clearly visible. The second photograph is dated 14 June 1887 in a similar attitude and shows a clear recovery.
Although the cases of Miss A, Miss B and Miss K resulted in recovery, Gull states that he observed at least one fatality as a result of anorexia nervosa. He states that the post mortem revealed no physical abnormalities other than thrombosis of the femoral veins. Death appeared to have resulted from starvation alone.
Gull observed that slow pulse and respiration seemed to be common factors in all the cases he had observed. He also observed that this resulted in below-normal body temperature and proposed the application of external heat as a possible treatment. This proposal is still debated by scientists today.
Gull also recommended that food should be administered at intervals varying inversely with the periods of exhaustion and emaciation. He believed that the inclination of the patient should in no way be consulted; and that the tendency of the medical attendant to indulge the patient ("Let her do as she likes. Don't force food."), particularly in the early stages of the condition, was dangerous and should be discouraged. Gull states that he formed this opinion after experience of dealing with cases of anoerexia nervosa, having previously himself been inclined to indulge patients' wishes.
Gull-Sutton Syndrome (Chronic Bright's Disease)
In 1872 Sir William Gull and Henry G. Sutton, M.B., F.R.C.P. presented a paper that challenged the earlier understanding of the causes of chronic Bright's DiseaseBright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
.
The symptoms of Bright's Disease had been described in 1827 by the English physician Richard Bright
Richard Bright
Richard Bright may refer to:*Richard Bright , English physician and early pioneer in the research of kidney disease*Richard Bright , English Member of Parliament, 1868–1878...
who, like Gull, was based at Guy's Hospital. Dr. Bright's work characterised the symptoms as caused by a disease centred on the kidney. Chronic Bright's disease was a more severe variant, where other organs are also affected.
In their introduction, Gull and Sutton point out that Dr. Bright and others have fully recognised that the granular contracted kidney is usually associated with morbid changes in other organs of the body and that these co-existent changes were commonly grouped together and termed "chronic Bright's disease." The prevailing opinion at the time was that the kidney was the organ primarily affected, inducing a condition that would spread to other parts of the body and thereby cause other organs to suffer.
Gull and Sutton argued that this assumption was incorrect. They presented evidence to show that the diseased state could also originate in other organs, and that the deterioration of the kidney is part of the general morbid change, rather than the primary cause. In some cases examined by Gull and Sutton, the kidney was only marginally affected while the condition was far more advanced in other organs.
Gull and Sutton's main conclusion was that the morbid change in the arteries and capilleries was the primary and essential condition of the morbid state known as chronic Bright's disease with contracted kidney. They stated that the clinical history may vary according to the organs primarily and chiefly affected; the condition could not be expected to follow a simple and predictable pattern.
Myxoedema
In 1873 Sir William Gull delivered a second seminal paper alongside his Anorexia nervosa work in which he demonstrated that the cause of myxoedema is atrophy of the thyroid gland. This paper, titled "On a cretinoid state supervening in adult life in women" was to be the better known of the two for many years.The background to Gull's work was research performed by Claude Bernard
Claude Bernard
Claude Bernard was a French physiologist. He was the first to define the term milieu intérieur . Historian of science I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science"...
in 1855 around the concept of the Milieu intérieur
Milieu interieur
Milieu intérieur or interior milieu, from the French, milieu intérieur, is a term coined by Claude Bernard to refer to the extra-cellular fluid environment, and its physiological capacity to ensure protective stability for the tissues and organs of multicellular living organisms.-Origin:Claude...
and subsequently by Moritz Schiff
Moritz Schiff
Moritz Schiff was a German physiologist.While working in Bern, he showed that removing the thyroid gland from dogs was fatal, and later showed that animal thyroid extract could prevent the death...
in Bern in 1859, and who showed that thyroidectomy
Thyroidectomy
A thyroidectomy is an operation that involves the surgical removal of all or part of the thyroid gland. Surgeons often perform a thyroidectomy when a patient has thyroid cancer or some other condition of the thyroid gland...
in dogs invariably proved fatal; Schiff later showed that grafts or injections of thyroid reversed the symptoms in both thyroidectomised animals and humans. He thought the thyroid liberated some important substance into the blood. Three years earlier, Charles Hilton Fagge
Charles Hilton Fagge
-Life:Fagge was the son of Charles Fagge, a medical practitioner, and nephew of John Hilton. He was born in Hythe, Kent on 30 June 1838. Fagge entered Guy's Hospital medical school in October 1856, and in 1859, at the first M.B. examination at the university of London, gained three scholarships and...
, also of Guy's Hospital, had produced a paper on 'sporadic cretinism'.
Gull's paper related the symptoms and changed appearance of a Miss B:
"After the cessation of the catamenial period, became insensibly more and more languid, with general increase of bulk ... Her face altering from oval to round ... the tongue broad and thick, voice guttural, and the pronunciation as if the tongue were too large for the mouth (cretinoid) ... In the cretinoid condition in adults which I have seen, the thyroid was not enlarged ... There had been a distinct change in the mental state. The mind, which had previously been active and inquisitive, assumed a gentle, placid indifference, corresponding to the muscular languor, but the intellect was unimpaired ... The change in the skin is remarkable. The texture being peculiarly smooth and fine, and the complexion fair, at a first hasty glance there might be supposed to be a general slight oedema of it ... The beautiful delicate rose-purple tint on the cheek is entirely different from what one sees in the bloated face of renal anasarca."
A few years later, in 1888, this condition would be named myxoedema by W.M. Ord.
Spinal Cord and Paraplegia
ParaplegiaParaplegia
Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...
is a condition usually resulting from injury to the spinal cord
Spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
. This was a long term interest of Gull's dating back at least to his three Goulstonian lectures of 1848, titled "On the nervous system", "Paraplegia" and "Cervical paraplegia - hemiplegia".
Gull divided paraplegia into three groups: spinal, peripheral, and encephalic, where the spinal group related to paralyses caused by damage to the spinal cord; the peripheral group comprised disorders that occur when multiple parts of the nervous system fail simultaneously; and the encephalic group comprised partial paralyses caused by a failure of the central nervous system, possibly possibly related to failure of the blood supply or a syphilitic condition.
Gull's main work on paraplegia was published between 1856 and 1858. Along with the French neurologist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard FRS , also known as Charles Edward, was a Mauritian physiologist and neurologist who, in 1850, became the first to describe what is now called Brown-Séquard syndrome.-Early life:...
, his work
enabled paraplegic symptoms to be understood in context with the prevailing, limited understanding of spinal cord pathology, for the first time. He presented a series of 32 cases, including autopsies in 29 instances, to correlate the clinical and pathological features.
He acknowledged, however, that nothing was more difficult than "the determination at the bedside, of the causes". Pathologically softening and inflammation were sometimes evident, but in many instances no obvious aetiology was found. One might have to seek for 'atomical' as distinguished from 'anatomical' causes, he speculated. He described two types of partial lesions, one confined to a segment of the spinal cord, the other extending longitudinally in one of its columns. He noticed and was puzzled by degenerations of the posterior columns that could cause an 'inability to regulate motor power'.
Gull recognised girdle pain as seldom absent from extrinsic compression, often signifying meningeal involvement. Paralysis of the lower extremities could, he thought, be consequent upon diseases of the bladder and kidneys ('urinary paraplegia'). The bladder infection was the source of inflammatory phlebitis extending from pelvic to spinal veins.
Meningitis with myelitis was found and attributed to exposure to cold or fatigue.
In five traumatic cases, the vertebral column was often but not invariably fractured and could compress the cord. He recorded one instance in a 33-year-old woman of a thoracic disk prolapse compressing the cord, without evident trauma. Tumours also figured in seven of his 32 patients; two were metastatic from kidney and lung. Two had intramedullary cervical tumours, and one, a Guy's Hospital nurse, probably had a cystic astrocytoma.
Earlier work by the Irish physician Robert Bentley Todd
Robert Bentley Todd
Robert Bentley Todd was an Irish-born physician who is best known for describing the condition postictal paralysis in his Lumleian Lectures in 1849 now known as Todd's palsy. He was the younger brother of noted writer and minister James Henthorn Todd.- Early life :He was the son of physician...
(1847), Ernest Horn, and Moritz Heinrich Romberg
Moritz Heinrich Romberg
Moritz Heinrich Romberg was a Jewish physician from Berlin who published his classic textbook in sections between 1840 and 1846; Edward Henry Sieveking translated it into English in 1853....
(1851) had described Tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis is a slow degeneration of the sensory neurons that carry afferent information. The degenerating nerves are in the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and carry information that help maintain a person's sense of position , vibration, and discriminative touch.-Cause:Tabes dorsalis is...
and noted atrophy of the spinal cord, but in an important paper, Gull also stressed the involvement of the posterior column in paraplegia with sensory ataxia [12].
Quotes
"Fools and savages explain ; wise men investigate." William Withey Gull - A Biographical Sketch (T. D. Acland), Memoir II."That the course of nature may be varied we have assumed by our meeting here today. The whole object of the science of medicine is based on this assumption"
British Medical Journal, 1874, 2: 425.
"I do not know what a brain is, and I do not know what sleep is, but I do know that a well-fed brain sleeps well"
Quoted in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, 1916, 52: 45.
"The foundation of the study of Medicine, as of all scientific inquiry, lies in the belief that every natural phenomenon, trifling as it may seem, has a fixed and invariable meaning"
Published Writings, «Study of Medicine»
"If facts be nature’s words, our words should be true sign of nature's facts. A word rightly imposed is a landmark indicating so much recovered from the region of ignorance"
Published Writings, Volume 156, «Study of Medicine»
"Never forget that it is not a pneumonia, but a pneumonic man who is your patient. Not a typhoid fever, but a typhoid man"
Published Writings (edited by T. D. Acland), Memoir II.
"Realize, if you can, what a paralyzing influence on all scientific inquiry the ancient belief must have had which attributed the operations of nature to the caprice not of one divinity, but of many. There still remains vestiges of this in most of our minds, and the more distinct in proportion to our weakness and ignorance."
British Medical Journal, 1874, 2: 425.
Links to the 1888 Whitechapel Murders
Sir William Gull features in a number of theories and fictional works in connection with the WhitechapelWhitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
“Jack the Ripper” murders of 1888. These are usually (though not always) associated with variants of conspiracy theories involving the Royal Family and the Freemasons.
1895-1897 – USA newspaper reports
The earliest known allegation that links the Whitechapel murders with a prominent London physician was in two articles published by a number of US newspapers between 1895 and 1897.The first article appeared in the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel (24 April 1895), the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette (25 April 1895) and the Ogden Standard, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. It reported an alleged conversation between William Greer Harrison
William Greer Harrison
William Greer Harrison was a prominent Irish-born citizen in San Francisco during the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century. By profession, he was an insurance agent, but is remembered for his associations with the Bohemian Club , the Olympic Club and for his civic...
, a prominent San Francisco citizen, and a Dr Howard of London. According to Howard, the murderer was a "medical man of high standing" whose wife had become alarmed by his erratic behaviour during the period of the Whitechapel murders. She conveyed her suspicions to some of her husband's medical colleagues who, after interviewing him and searching the house, "found ample proofs of murder" and committed him to an asylum.
Variations of the second article appeared in the Williamsport Sunday Grit (12 May 1895); the Hayward
Hayward
Hayward was originally Hayward , an officer of a township in charge of fences and enclosures. It may also refer to:-People with surname Hayward:*Abraham Hayward , English writer and essayist*Adam Hayward, American football player...
Review, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(17 May 1895); and the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
Daily Eagle (28 December 1897). This article comments that "the identity of that incarnate fiend was settled some time ago" and that the murderer was "a demented physician afflicted with wildly uncontrollable erotic mania." It repeats some of the details in the earlier report, adding that Dr Howard "was one of a dozen London physicians who sat as a commission in lunacy upon their brother physician, for at last it was definitely proved that the dread Jack the Ripper was a physician in high standing and enjoying the patronage of the best society in the West End of London." The article goes on to allege that the preacher and spiritualist Robert James Lees
Robert James Lees
Robert James Lees was a British spiritualist, medium, preacher, writer and healer of the late Victorian era and early twentieth century known today for claims that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper, responsible for the Whitechapel murders of 1888.-Early life:The son of William Lingham Lees...
played a leading role in the physician’s arrest by using his clairvoyant powers to divine that the Whitechapel murderer lived in a house in Mayfair. He persuaded police to enter the house, the home of a distinguished physician, who was allegedly removed to a private insane asylum in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
under the name of "Thomas Mason". Meanwhile the disappearance of the physician was explained by announcing his death and faking a funeral – "an empty coffin, which now reposes in the family vaults in Kensal Green
Kensal Green
Kensal Green, also referred to as Kensal Rise is an area of London, England. It is located on the southern edge of the London Borough of Brent and borders the City of Westminster to the East and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the South....
, is supposed to contain the mortal remains of a great West End physician, whose untimely death all London mourned." (This detail does not correspond with Sir William Gull, who was buried in the churchyard at Thorpe-le-Soken
Thorpe-le-Soken
Thorpe-le-Soken is a village in Essex, located west of Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea and north of Clacton-on-Sea.-History:Thorpe-le-Soken's history can be traced back to Saxon times....
in Essex.)
The identity of the Dr Howard who is alleged to have provided the information for the first article was never established. On 2 May 1895, the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette published a follow-up quoting William Greer [sic] as reaffirming the accuracy of the story, and describing Dr. Howard as a "well-known London physician who passed through San Francisco on a tour of the world several months ago". A further follow-up article in the London People on 19 May 1895, written by Joseph Hatton, identified him as Dr. Benjamin Howard, an American doctor who had practised in London during the late 1880s. The article was shown to Dr. Benjamin Howard on a return visit to London in January 1896, prompting a strong letter of denial published in The People on 26 January 1896:
1970 - Criminologist article (Thomas Stowell)
Dr. Thomas Eldon Alexander StowellThomas E. A. Stowell
Thomas Edmund Alexander Stowell CBE, FRCS was a British physician.Stowell was educated at St Paul's School, followed by St Thomas' Hospital. From 1910, he took clinical training at St Thomas's Hospital, Grimsby and District Hospital, and the Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool. He qualified as a...
, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.S. published an article in The Criminologist
The Criminologist
The Criminologist is a character in The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He is the Narrator of the musical and was first portrayed by Jonathan Adams in 1973 and in the film by Charles Gray who was famous for playing Ernst Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are...
, Vol. 5 No. 18, November 1970, titled "'Jack the Ripper' - A Solution?"
Stowell was a junior colleague to Dr Theodore Dyke Acland, Gull’s son-in-law. He alleges that one of Gull’s patients was the Whitechapel murderer. He refers to the killer as “S” throughout the article without ever identifying him, but the identity of “S” is widely presumed to be Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, HM Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's grandson and heir presumptive to the throne. Stowell writes,
Stowell apparently devised his theory using Sir William Gull’s private papers as his primary source material. However, this cannot be confirmed as Stowell died a few days after publishing his article and his family burned his papers. Gull (who was named in the article) supposedly left papers showing that “S” had not died of pneumonia, as had been reported, but of tertiary syphilis. Stowell states that “S” caught syphilis in the West Indies while touring the world in his late teens and it was this illness that brought on a state of insanity which led to the murders.
He goes on to allege that “S” was certified insane by Gull and placed in a private mental home, from which he escaped and committed the last, and most brutal, murder of Mary Jane Kelly in November 1888. He then recovered sufficiently to take a five month cruise before his relapse and death "in his father's country house" of "bronchopneumonia."
1973 - “Jack the Ripper” (BBC mini-series)
In 1973 the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
broadcast Jack the Ripper, a six-part mini-series in the docudrama format. The series, scripted by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd, used fictional detectives Detective Chief Inspector Charles Barlow and Detective Inspector John Watt from the police drama Softly, Softly
Softly, Softly (TV series)
Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern - supposedly in the Bristol and Chepstow area of the UK...
to portray an investigation into the Whitechapel murders.
The series did not reach a single conclusion, but is significant for its inclusion of the first public airing of a story propounded by Joseph “Hobo” Sickert, alleged illegitimate son of artist Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
. This theory alleges that the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, conspired with HM Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
and senior Freemasons, including senior police officers, to murder a number of women with knowledge of an illegitimate Catholic heir to the throne sired by Prince Albert Victor. According to this theory, the murders were carried out by Sir William Gull with the assistance of a coachman, John Netley
John Netley
John Charles Netley was a cab driver who is notable because of claims that he was involved in the 'Whitechapel Murders' committed by Jack the Ripper.-Biography:...
. Sickert himself later retracted the story, in an interview with the London Sunday Times on 18 June 1978. He is quoted as saying, "It was a hoax; I made it all up" and, it was "a whopping fib.".
1976 - “Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution” (Stephen Knight)
Stephen Knight was a reporter for the East London AdvertiserEast London Advertiser
The East London Advertiser is a weekly local newspaper in east London, England covering primarily the borough of Tower Hamlets. It was founded in 1866 and has been owned by Archant since 2003....
who interviewed Joseph Sickert following the BBC series. He was sufficiently convinced by the story to write a book - Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution - which proposes the Sickert story as its central conclusion. The book provides the inspiration for a number of fictional works related to the Whitechapel murderers.
Knight undertook his own research, which established that there really was a coachman named John Netley; that an unnamed child was knocked down in the Strand in October 1888 and that a man named “Nickley” attempted suicide by drowning from Westminster Bridge in 1892. He was also provided with access to Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
files, from which a number of contemporary police reports were made public for the first time.
Knight's claim that Sir William Gull, along with various others were all high ranking Freemasons, is disputed. Knight writes:
This claim is refuted by John Hamill, former Librarian for the Freemasons’ United Grand Lodge of England (subsequently the Director of Communications). Hamill writes:
Popular culture since 1976
In 1979, the fictional character Sir Thomas Spivey, portrayed by actor Roy Lansford, appears in Murder by DecreeMurder by Decree
Murder by Decree is an Anglo-Canadian thriller film involving Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the case of the serial murderer Jack the Ripper...
, starring Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
as Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
as Doctor Watson. Sir Thomas Spivey, a Royal physician whose character is based on Sir William Gull, is revealed as the murderer in a plotline based on Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Spivey is depicted as assisted by a character named William Slade, himself based on John Netley
John Netley
John Charles Netley was a cab driver who is notable because of claims that he was involved in the 'Whitechapel Murders' committed by Jack the Ripper.-Biography:...
.
A fictionalised Sir William Gull appears in Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
's 1987 novel White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings in a plotline based on Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution.
Sir William Gull is portrayed by Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.-Background:...
in 1988 in a TV dramatisation of the murders
Jack the Ripper (1988 TV series)
Jack the Ripper is a 1988 four-part television movie/mini-series portraying a fictionalized account of the hunt for Jack the Ripper, the unidentified serial killer responsible for the Whitechapel murders of 1888...
, starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
and Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (actress)
Jane Seymour, OBE is an English actress best known for her performances in the James Bond film Live and Let Die , East of Eden , Onassis: The Richest Man in the World , and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman...
. The plotline reveals Sir William Gull as the murderer, assisted by coachman John Netley, but otherwise excludes the main elements of the Royal conspiracy theory.
From 1991 to 1996, a fictionalized Sir William Gull is featured in the graphic novel From Hell
From Hell
From Hell is a comic book series by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published from 1991 to 1996, speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic...
by writer Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and artist Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
. The plotline depicts Sir William Gull as the murderer and takes Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. as its premise. Eddie Campbell records in his blog, that
The story "Royal Blood" told in John Constantine
John Constantine
John Constantine is a fictional character, an occult detective anti-hero in comic books published by DC Comics, mostly under the Vertigo imprint. The character first appeared in Swamp Thing #37 , and was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch...
Hellblazer
Hellblazer
Hellblazer is a contemporary horror comic book series, originally published by DC Comics, and subsequently by the Vertigo imprint since March 1993, the month the imprint was introduced, where it remains to this day...
(1992, DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
) mentions Jack the Ripper being Sir William Gull possessed by a demon called Calibraxis.
The fictional character "Sir Nigel Gull" appears in the 1993 novel The List of Seven
The List of Seven
The List of Seven is a 1993 novel by Mark Frost. Though initially an occult murder mystery, the story brings in conspiracy theory, vendetta, horror, history, and Theosophy...
by Mark Frost
Mark Frost
Mark Frost is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, who is best known as a writer for the TV show Hill Street Blues and co-creator of the show Twin Peaks.-Personal life:...
. "Sir Nigel Gull" is depicted as a Royal physician and appears to be based on Sir William Gull. The plotline has an occult theme that features Prince Edward, Duke of Clarence but does not reference the Whitechapel murders.
In a 2001 film adaptation of the graphic novel From Hell
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...
, Sir William Gull is portrayed by Sir Ian Holm
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...
.
Actor Peter Penry-Jones
Peter Penry-Jones
Peter David Penry-Jones was a Welsh actor.-Career:His television credits include: Colditz, The Professionals, To the Manor Born, Bergerac, Howards' Way, Kavanagh QC and Midsomer Murders...
portrays Sir William Gull in 2004's Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder - The Case of Charles Bravo – a dramatised documentary investigating the unsolved murder of barrister Charles Bravo
Charles Bravo
Charles Bravo was a British lawyer who was fatally poisoned with antimony in 1876. The case is still sensational, notorious and unresolved. The case is also known as The Charles Bravo Murder and the Murder at the Priory.It was an unsolved crime committed within an elite Victorian household at The...
in 1876.