Thomas Bond (British surgeon)


Thomas Bond FRCS, MB BS, was an English surgeon considered by some to be the first offender profiler, and best known for his association with the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.

Early life

Born at Durston Lodge at Durston in Somerset in 1841, he was the son of Thomas Bond, a gentleman farmer, and Mary née Hearne. Bond was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School at Taunton. Bond was a student to his maternal uncle, Dr McCann of Southampton, before training at King's College and King's College Hospital in London where he won the Gold Medal of the University of London for his Bachelor of Surgery examination. In 1864 Bond was appointed MRCS, graduated MB BS in 1865, and in 1866 FRCS. In 1866 he joined the Prussian Military Service in which he attended the sick during a cholera epidemic. During the Austro-Prussian War he carried a despatch from the Prussian Army through the Austrian lines to the Italian lines.

Medical career

Returning to London, Bond set up practice in Westminster, and was appointed Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police's A Division in 1867. He won a post at the Westminster Hospital in 1873 after several failed elections, and he spent his entire career at that hospital, firstly as an assistant surgeon and, from 1895, as a Full Surgeon.
As surgeon to the Metropolitan Police's 'A Division' he dealt with many important cases, including those of the Battersea Mystery, Mary Jane Kelly, Kate Webster, Percy Lefroy Mapleton and the "Thames Torso Murders" investigations of 1887–1889. Bond also examined the bodies of Rose Mylett and Alice Mackenzie and submitted reports on both. Bond was described as being among the best of medical witnesses as his evidence was always clear. Bond was an early offender profiler, and attempted to profile the personality of Jack the Ripper in 1888.
Bond was railway surgeon or consulting railway surgeon to the Great Western Railway and the Great Eastern Railway. Bond's function for the railways was primarily as medico-legal consultant regarding injury claims rather than practical surgery. He did, however, treat the injured of an overturned train on which he was himself a passenger. Bond's last major work for the railways was investigations in connection with the Slough rail accident of 1900. Bond also wrote a lengthy article on railway injuries for Heath's Dictionary of Practical Surgery.

Jack the Ripper

On 25 October 1888, Robert Anderson wrote to Bond asking him to examine material connected with the Jack the Ripper investigation. In his letter Anderson enclosed copies of the evidence given at the inquests into the murders of Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, and asked Bond to deliver his "opinion on the matter."
Bond examined the papers for two weeks and replied to Anderson on 10 November 1888. Mary Jane Kelly had been killed the morning before in Dorset Street, and Bond had spent much of that day performing her autopsy.
Bond's report said:

Later years

Bond married twice; firstly in 1870 to Rosa Sophia Hayes a daughter of Mr. Justice Hayes, with whom he had six children: Lucy Elizabeth Bond ; Mabel Alice Bond ; Mary H H Bond ; Harold Thomas Hearne Bond ; Arthur G H Bond ; Ivor Reginald Beviss Bond, and T Reginald B Bond. In 1900 he married his second wife, Mrs. Louisa Dashwood Nairne Imrie, daughter of the late Mr. Lancelot Dashwood of Overstrand.
A keen huntsman, Bond rode with the Badminton Hounds at Chippenham and the Devon and Somerset Staghounds on Exmoor. He once recommended a tired City businessman: 'You will hunt with the Devon & Somerset staghounds three days a week in August and four in September, and you will drink each alternate evening a pint of Champagne and a pint of Burgundy.’ He was also a regular judge at horse shows.
Bond committed suicide on 6 June 1901 when, clad only in his nightdress, he threw himself from a bedroom window of his home at 7, the Sanctuary, Westminster following a long period of insomnia caused by pain he had been suffering since middle-age, and which he had treated with narcotics.
Thomas Bond was buried in Orchard Portman churchyard in Somerset.