Henry Richard Farquharson
Henry Richard Farquharson (1857 – 19 April 1895)[1] was an English landowner and Conservative politician.
Farquharson was born at Brighton and became the owner of a large estate at Eastbury House, Tarrant Gunville (near Blandford Forum in Dorset). He was a keen breeder of Newfoundland dogs and had a pack of one hundred and twenty five. He imported them through the port of Poole, Dorset and had a Crufts winner.[2]
He was elected at the 1885 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Dorset, and held the seat until his death.[3] In 1891, an unnamed West of England M.P., now believed to have been Henry Richard Farquharson, was mentioned in a newspaper article as claiming that Jack the Ripper, the infamous murderer in the impoverished Whitechapel District in the East End of London, was the son of a surgeon and that he committed suicide after he had committed murder of Mary Jane Kelly on the night of 9 November 1888.[4] It is believed that the reference was to Montague John Druitt, a fellow West County man, who committed suicide at the end of November 1888 and whose body was retrieved from the Thames at Chiswick a month later. Druitt was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, the second son of prominent local surgeon William Druitt, and his wife Ann (née Harvey).[5] In the 1892 election Farquharson libelled his opponent C. T. Gatty, and was forced to pay £5000 damages a year later.[6] He died 19 April 1895 in the Red Sea on a voyage home from Colombo, Ceylon.[7]
References
- ^ "Historical list of MPs: constituencies beginning with D, part 2". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
- ^ Dorset Online Parish Clerks - Tarrant Gunville
- ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 266. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
- ^ [Bristol Times and Mirror, 11 February 1891]
- ^ [Begg, Paul, Martin Fido, Keith Skinner, The Jack the Ripper A to Z. London: John Blake, 2010, pp. 146, 163]
- ^ The West Australian, 22 June 1893
- ^ [The Times, 24 April 1895]
External links
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