Thomas Bond

Thomas Bond FRCS, MB BS (London), (7 October 1841 – 6 June 1901) 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 (1806-), a gentleman farmer, and Mary née Hearne (1810–1878). 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. 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. Bond was described as being among the best of medical witnesses as his evidence was always clear. 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.

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."

Later years

Bond married twice; firstly in 1870 to Rosa Sophia Hayes (1844–1899) a daughter of Mr. Justice Hayes, with whom he had six children: Lucy Elizabeth Bond (1872–1940, who married the music educator Percy Buck in 1896); Mabel Alice Bond (1874–1961); Mary H H Bond (1878–); Harold Thomas Hearne Bond (1879–1941); Arthur G H Bond (1881–), and Ivor Reginald Beviss Bond (1886–1960). In 1900 he married his second wife, Mrs. Louisa Dashwood Nairne Imrie (1849-), daughter of the late Mr. Lancelot Dashwood of Overstrand. He was also a regular judge at horse shows. 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.