Sir Albert de Rutzen was chief magistrate of the Metropolitan Police Courts in the United Kingdom. He was knighted in 1901.[1]

Vanity Fair caricature by "Wag" (Arthur George Witherby), 1900.

De Rutzen was born Albert Richard Francis Maximilian De Rutzen, the son of Baron Charles Frederick De Rutzen (1795-1874), in 1830.[2] He was born in Pall Mall, London.[3]

De Rutzen was stipendiary magistrate of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales from 1872 to 1876. He became a Metropolitan Police magistrate in London in 1876 to 1913, becoming Chief Magistrate in 1901, when he was knighted.[4]

In 1910, de Rutzen issued the arrest warrant for Dr Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve, for the murder of Crippen's wife.[5] Crippen and Le Neve were on a ship to Canada were arrested on their arrival in Quebec. Crippen was convicted and executed and Le Neve was acquitted.

In 1872, de Rutzen married Horatia Augusta Stepney Gulston (1840-1924) of Carmarthenshire, the daughter of magistrate Alan James Gulston.[4] They had five children together: Emmeline Augusta Louisa (b. 1873), Gwendoline Mary (b.1875), and Alan Frederick James (b.1876), who were all born in Carmarthenshire, and two children born in London: Alberta Dorothea (b.1877) and Violet Frances (b.1881). Sir Albert De Rutzen died in London on 22 September 1913, aged 83.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ Shaw, William Arthur. (1970). The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day &c. Vol. I. Clearfield. p. 409. ISBN 978-0-8063-0443-4.
  2. ^ Marriage of Albert De Rutzen and Horatia Augusta Stepney Gulston, Carmarthenshire, 11 September 1872; death record of Albert RFM De Rutzen, Kensington, Sept 1872 (vol 1a, page 0134)
  3. ^ The entry for De Rutzen in the 1891 census for St George Hanover Square, London
  4. ^ a b Walford, Edward (1919). The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. London: Spottiswoode Balantyne & Co. p. 373.
  5. ^ "Crippen & Miss le Neve - both charged with murder". The Guardian. 20 August 1910.
  6. ^ Cincinnati Enquirer, September 23, 1913

External links edit

  • "Horatia Augusta Gulston". The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography. – photograph and biographical details of Lady Horatia de Rutzen