Josephine is winner
Saturday 17th February 2007, 5:23PM GMT.
A competition run in connection with the book “The Disappearing Duke” written by Tom Freeman-Keel of Craven Arms and Andrew Crofts has been won by Josephine Smith, of Shrewsbury, who has won £60.
Mr Freeman-Keel’s book centred on a Victorian scandal surrounding the mysterious 5th Duke of Portland and allegations that he was living a double life as Thomas Charles Druce, the owner of a London bazaar.
The competition invited readers of the book to write a 300-word letter giving an opinion as to why they were, or were not, the same man.
In her entry, Josephine Smith reveals a family connection to the story.
“My great uncle Joseph was butler to the Cavendish Bentinck family, certainly during the years 1911 to 1914, as it was then that my father lived with them as a young child,” she writes.
Her great uncle did speak of the Duke of Portland in Mr Freeman-Keel’s story, she says.
As to whether the Duke and Mr Druce were the same person, she says there were many corresponding interweaving threads in the lives of the two men, but she is not sure where the truth lies.
“Only DNA would finally solve the mystery,” she says.
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