Edward Drummond
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Edward Drummond (30 March 1792 – 25 January 1843) was a British
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, and was Personal Secretary to several
British Prime Ministers The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet. There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was no ...
. He was fatally shot by Daniel McNaughton, whose subsequent trial gave rise to the McNaughton rules, the legal test of
insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
used in many
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
jurisdictions.


Life and career

Drummond was a member of the family who owned and ran Drummonds Bank, and a great grandson of
William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan (1690 – 16 April 1746) was a Scottish peer and Jacobite, who died at the Battle of Culloden. Pardoned for his part in the 1715 Rising, he raised a troop of cavalry for Prince Charles in 1745 an ...
who died fighting for the Jacobite cause at the
Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince Wi ...
in 1746. His parents were Charles Drummond, a banker, and his wife, Frances Dorothy (herself the second daughter of the Reverend Edward Lockwood). He was one of nine children, of whom five survived to adulthood. His sister Charlotte did not marry and shared a house with him in
Lower Grosvenor Street Lower Grosvenor Street was a street in London, England, later renamed Grosvenor Street. It was at the south-eastern corner of Grosvenor Square, extending eastward towards Bond Street. Count de Melfort, in his '' Impressions of England'', descr ...
. His older brother Charles followed their father into the bank; younger brother Berkeley went into the army and younger brother Arthur into the church.Bolitho, H. and Peel, D. (1967) ''The Drummonds of Charing Cross'', London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, pp 101-103. Drummond joined the civil service in June 1814, becoming a clerk at the
Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
. He was later Private Secretary to a succession of British
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
s:
George Canning George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Unit ...
,
Lord Goderich Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon, (1 November 1782 – 28 January 1859), styled The Honourable F. J. Robinson until 1827 and known between 1827 and 1833 as The Viscount Goderich (pronounced ), the name by which he is best known to ...
, the
1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
, and
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...
.


Assassination

On the afternoon of 20 January, Drummond was walking along
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...
on his way back to Downing Street from visiting his brother at the bank in
Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
when Daniel McNaughton, a Scottish woodturner, approached him from behind, drew a pistol and fired at point-blank range into his back. McNaughton was overpowered by a police constable before he could fire a second pistol. It is generally thought, although the evidence is not conclusive, that McNaughton was under the impression that he had shot Prime Minister
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...
. At first it was thought that Drummond's wound was not serious. He managed to walk back to his house, the bullet was removed and the first newspaper reports were optimistic: "The ball has been extracted. No vital part is injured, and urgeonsMr Guthrie and Mr Bransby Cooper have every reason to believe that Mr. Drummond is doing very well." However, complications set in and Drummond died five days later, aged 50. He was buried at St Luke's Church, Charlton, where his brother Arthur was rector. Spencer Perceval, the prime minister who had been assassinated in 1812 (and whose sister Mary had been married to Drummond's uncle Andrew Berkeley Drummond), was also buried at Charlton, in the Egmont family vault.
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
wrote in a letter to Leopold I of Belgium that "Poor Drummond is universally regretted". McNaughton was tried for murder, but found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to Bethlem Hospital and later to
Broadmoor Hospital Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...
. The McNaughton Rules developed by the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
after his trial were to establish the basis for the
insanity defence The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the ...
in all
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
countries. In 1843, a surgeon who was opposed to blood-letting published an anonymous pamphlet claiming that Drummond was killed not by McNaughton's shot, but by the medical treatment he received afterwards. He said that a gunshot wound of the type sustained by Drummond was not necessarily fatal and criticised Drummond's doctors for their hasty removal of the bullet and repeated blood-lettings.


In popular culture

Drummond features as a character in season 2 of the ITV television series '' Victoria''. He is portrayed as being considerably younger than he was in the 1840s, and the year and circumstances of his assassination are significantly altered. He is also shown as having a relationship with
Lord Alfred Paget Lord Alfred Henry Paget (26 June 1816 – 24 August 1888) was a British soldier, courtier and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1837 and 1865. Early life Paget was the sixth son of William Paget, the 1st Marquess of An ...
, which is generally regarded as improbable. In the TV series, Drummond is killed instantly when he throws himself in front of an assassin's bullet to protect Peel immediately after the vote to repeal the Corn Laws.


References


Further reading

*J. A. Hamilton, 'Drummond, Edward (1792–1843)’, rev. H. C. G. Matthew,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 200
accessed 4 September 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drummond, Edward 1792 births 1843 deaths 1843 murders in the United Kingdom British murder victims Civil servants in HM Treasury Private secretaries in the British Civil Service People murdered in Westminster Deaths by firearm in London Principal Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister