Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘George’, addressed “My dear Osborne”, revealing in full the telegram received from Gull about the critical health of the Prince (almost certainly the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII). 2 pp. 7 x 4½ inches, folds, in good condition. Gloucester House, Park Lane, “Saturday morning”, probably December 1871. George William Frederick Charles, Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), the only son of George III’s seventh son, Adolphus Frederick. Sir William Withey Gull, first baronet (1816–1890), physician. (Gull was suggested in the past as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders, related to an alleged royal/masonic conspiracy.) Gull attended the Prince of Wales during his severe illness from typhoid fever in 1871. The Prince began to recover on 14 December 1871. The Duke of Cambridge writes: “Gull telegraph to me from last night at 9.50: ‘No return of excess of fever tonight. Prince going on well as we ought to expect up to this time.’ This is more reassuring. I fear that on Thursday night he was in great danger but the crisis passed over.”