Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Miss Isabel M. C. Druitt, Voluntary Aid Detachment

British War and Victory Medals (I. M. C. Druitt. V.A.D.) extremely fine (2) £70-£90

Miss Isabel Mary Carola Druitt was born on 28 May 1890, the daughter of the Reverend Charles Druitt, Vicar of East and West Harnham, Wiltshire, and enrolled as a Nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment on 28 August 1916. She served with them during the Great War, initially at Aldershot Military Hospital, before serving in Salonika from 19 April 1917 to 7 October 1918, and received a Scarlet Efficiency Stripe on 23 May 1918. She saw further service at Reading Military Hospital from 9 October 1918 to 31 April 1919.

Miss Druitt’s father’s first cousin, Montague John Druitt, a barrister from the Inner Temple, was amongst those suspected of being the Whitechapel Murderer (Jack the Ripper); Druitt committed suicide in early December 1888 and his body was found floating in the River Thames, his death roughly coinciding with the end of the Whitechapel murders. However, the evidence against him was entirely circumstantial.

Sold with a copy of the book ‘Jack the Ripper, 100 Years of Investigation’, by Terence Sharkey; and copied research.