"DRUCE CASE" RECALLED

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 144, 20 June 1913, Page 2

"DRUCE CASE" RECALLED

DEATH OF MR HERBERT DRUOE,

The death last month of Mr Herbert Druce at an advanced age recalls the notorious "Druce case," in which first Anna Maria Druoe, and then George Hollamby Druce, sought to prove that the revenue^s of the splendid estates of the Duke of Portland and Lord Howard de Walden were being enjoyed by people who had no legal right to .them. Mr Herbert Druce was the central figure in the famous perjury case investigated by Mr Plowden at Marylebone and Clerkenwell Police Courts. The case arose out of the claim of Mr George Hollamby Druce to the Portland, and Walden estates, and the perjury was alleged to have been committed by Mr Herbert Druce in the probate proceedings over the will of hisi father, the late T. C. Druce, owner of the Baker Street Bazaar, when he stated thiat he saw his father lying in his coffin. If this were so, it disposed entirely of the claim of Mr HbJlamby Druce, who asserted that Mr T. C. Druce and the fifth Duke of Portland were identical, and that the duke had simulated death in the chaa'acter of Druce, and arranged for his own mock burial, in order that the personality of Druce might be extinguished. If the grave were opened, he said, it wouldi be found to contain, not the body of Mr Druce, but a quantity of lead. When the grave in Higbgate cemetery was opened, it was found to contain the" still identifiable remains of Mr T. C. Druce, and not a vestigo of lead. After this, the perjury prosecution was abandoned, and the case of the claimant collapsed.