Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman

stone outbuildings. They overlook a quiet mill pond at the end of a short grass track, just off the narrow Gwynfe Road. This idyllic setting, on the banks of the Afon Meilwch, a tributary of the river Tywi, was where John
    Williams, the third of four brothers after David and Morgan, and his younger brother Nathaniel, grew up. When their father, David, farmer and part-time Methodist minister, died of typhoid fever in 1842, the task of raising the boys fell to David’s widow, Eleanor. John Williams’s mother was a force to be reckoned with. Within the family, her word was law; she expected obedience from her sons, and it is clear from such accounts as are available that she was not disappointed. John Williams’s biographer, Ruth Evans, said of her in John Williams 1840-1926 : “There can be no doubt that she was the force behind all the early decisions about her son John’s career, and that by drawing on her wisdom and strength, doors were opened to him, which might have remained for ever closed.”
    The young John Williams clearly enjoyed a happy childhood. During an address to aspiring medical students delivered at the University College of South Wales on 10 October 1900 entitled ‘The Training of Body and Mind for the Profession of Medicine’, he recounted some pleasurable aspects of his early years. These reminiscences provide a vital insight into his character. The local school in the nearest village, Gwynfe, was three miles away, though the long walk through idyllic countryside instilled in him a love of nature and physical exercise. He would frequently stop on the way to explore a pond and “the nest of an old crow demanded a daily visit on a high and solitary tree, and, if he were lucky, rob the eggs he found there.” Once at school, he enjoyed playing Hare and Hounds, mentioning that cricket was an unknown sport in those days. “The discovery of a gin [a trap to ensnare small animals] was a source of intense enjoyment and the division of its string afforded a doubly exquisite pleasure for it ensured puss [rabbit?] a free run and baulked the skilful poacher in his nefarious designs.”
    Later in his address John Williams continued, “Such a boyhood as that which I have described braces the mind and body, strengthens the weak frame and makes healthy youths. I have to confess that I look back upon that period in my life not only as one of the pleasantest and brightest but also one of the best spent, for its effects have been my mainstay for the rest of my career.”
    But one statement he made, more than any other, demonstrated Dr John Williams’s state of mind, and clearly established there were no demons in his past that might have driven him through the metamorphosis from happy innocent schoolboy to violent mass murderer: “A sane mind in a healthy body is the best reinsurance for any future training.”
    At the age of fifteen, John Williams left his local school and attended the Normal School in Swansea. He intended to follow his father’s footsteps and train for a career in the ministry. However, encouraged by the principal, Dr Evan Davies, he developed an interest in natural science and in 1857 he left Swansea for Glasgow University where he studied mathematics for a year. His class voted him second prize for ‘general excellence’, which award was approved by his professor. On 20 July 1859, he bound himself as apprentice under a deed of indentures for five years to Dr W.H. Michael and Dr Ebenezer Davies, surgeons and apothecaries in Swansea, “to learn the art and science of Medicine and Surgery”. But just two years later in 1861, the year that the Prince Consort, Queen Victoria’s husband Albert, died, William’s burning ambition led him to abandon his training, and he entered University College Hospital in London where he continued his medical studies.
    In 1864 Williams was appointed obstetric assistant and the next year he was promoted to house surgeon. In 1865, he was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Honour for Pathological Anatomy, and a gold medal, which he later melted down to make his wife’s wedding ring. By the age of twenty-seven, he had qualified both as a doctor and surgeon and worked at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. In neither position did he receive any pay – just free board and lodging – so he relied on his mother to support him financially. He could not remain in London on this basis indefinitely,