John Cudworth Whitebrook – An Admirable Defence Counsel

In last week’s blog post, I delved into the legal arguments used by Werner Walti’s defence counsel, John Cudworth Whitebrook, after the civil trial. I admit to being impressed with Whitebrook’s attempts and wanted to know more about this man who came up with such creative arguments. He didn’t lead an ordinary life… that’s for sure!

Early Life

John Cudworth Whitebrook was born 2 May 1873 to William Whitebrook and Lucy Agnes Patterson. Although John was baptized into the Church of England on 22 June 1873 at Old St. Pancras, his religious path would take unexpected twists and turns. John’s father, William was a bookkeeper/clerk for a music publishing firm. William had children late in life, being 58 years old at the time of John’s birth. William and Lucy lived at 17 Swinton Street just southeast of the transportation hubs of St. Pancras and King’s Cross. In addition to John, the couple had two other children, William Patterson Whitebrook (born 1871) and Lucy Agnes (born 1875).

By 1891, the family had moved to Enfield, in the northeast corner of London. According to the 1891 census, William was a retired bookkeeper and now blind in one eye, perhaps due to a cataract. Both sons, William and John, were students of theology while the daughter, Lucy Agnes, no longer appears on the census, having passed away in 1892 at the age of 6 years. According to the census, the family had a general domestic servant, so must have moderately well-to-do.

Possible First Marriage & Children

At this point, the story of John gets a bit complicated. It would appear that he may have married Nelly Cook in 1899, possibly because a child was on the way. Nelly would go on to have three children who seem to have been sired by John Cudworth Whitebrook: Damaris (born 20 Dec 1899), Ralph (born 1901) and Geoffrey (born 1902).

All three children were baptized on 2 May 1910 at St. Dunstan’s in the West (a guild church on Fleet Street, London). The parents for these first three children were John Cudworth Whitebrook and Nelly “Cook or Cudworth”. A couple of month’s later, on 11 July, a half-brother (Henry – born 1908) and the mother, Nelly, were also baptized at the same church. Henry’s father, however, was Henry Houghton. The occupation listed for all five baptisms was “Teacher” and the abode was “Suffolk Villa, Pitsea”. Normally this would be the father’s occupation/abode but, in this case, I believe that they could be the mother’s occupation/abode. Nelly was 39 years old in 1910 and her parents were Ebenezer and Ellen Cook. All five baptisms were performed by H.G. Woods, “Master of the Temple” while other children on that same page were baptized by Lionel James, the Rector of St. Dunstan’s. It would appear that Henry George Woods was the Master of the Temple for Temple Church, originally built by the Knights Templar. All, very curious.

I had hoped that the 1911 census would shed some light on this convoluted family but… am left with more questions. Nelly, Damaris (11) and Henry (2) (all with Cudworth as their surname – not Cook or Whitebrook) along with a servant (Daisy Klunkert) were living at 4 Cranley Mansions in Muswell Hill, in the north of London. Nelly had been born in St. Pancras, London while Damaris had been born in Manor Park, London. Henry, on the other hand had been born in Cork, Ireland. According to the census, Nelly had been married for 12 years (to J.C. Whitebrook?) and was a private teacher. I found the two other boys, Geoffrey and Ralph at The Elms, a boarding school in Colwall near Malvern in Herefordshire. According to their census info, they had been born in Cromer, Norfolk.

There is no sign of John Cudworth Whitebrook in the 1911 census. Nor could I find him, or Nelly for that matter, in the 1901 census. In that census, however, I did find Damaris Whitebrook (1 year old) and an unnamed child (3 months old – likely Ralph) living at 35 Poplar Terrace in Witham, Essex, with a servant, Sharron Alma (22 years old). According to this census, Damaris had been born in Little Ilford (part of the Manor Park district in London) while the unnamed son (Ralph) had been born in Witham, Essex.

Where were John and Nelly in the 1901 Census? Where was John in the 1911 Census? Why could I not find a marriage registration for John and Nelly if they were, indeed, married? I’m going to guess that there was something quite irregular about the whole affair.

I did some digging on Nelly Cook(e). She was indeed born to Ebenezer and Ellen Cooke (née Lane) in 1871 in St. Pancras. Ebenezer was a teacher of drawing and natural science in the 1881/1891 censuses and had been born in Norfolk. Ebenezer and Ellen had quite a bevy of children, many of whom went on to become teachers or artists.

• Arthur Ebenezer – born 1863 – artist, lithographer
• Kate Ellen – born 1865 – Kindergarten teacher
• Edith Mary – born 1867 – shirt-maker
• Nelly – born 1871 – Kindergarten student-in-training
• Gilbert Cubitt – born 1873 – Clerk – Woolen Warehouse
• Frank Percy – born 1874 – engineering student
• Winifred Hilda – born 1881 – Kindergarten teacher
• Clement Dyke – born 1884 – art master, student-in-training and designer

Given that Ebenezer had been born in Norfolk, it is possible that his daughter Nelly may have gone there to visit the grandparents and to give birth to Ralph and Geoffrey. Perhaps that’s why she was not residing with Damaris in the 1901 census? Except Ebenezer’s parents died in 1869 and 1885 so they would not have been alive in 1901. But perhaps Nelly went to visit an aunt or uncle? Her mother, Ellen, had been born in Islington, London, so it is doubtful that she had roots in Norfolk.

It gets even more curious when we learn that Nelly, Geoffrey, Ralph and Henry (all with Cudworth as their surname) departed for Australia aboard the S.S. Indarra of the Queensland Line on 23 November 1912. All four were destined for Brisbane and intended to make Australia their permanent abode. Where was Damaris? She would have been 12-13 years old at this point, which seems a bit young to be left on her own. As it turns out, she too sailed for Australia, except aboard the SS Marathon (Aberdeen Line), departing London on 4 December 1913, almost a full year after her mother and brothers departed.

The threads of the family start to separate even more at this point. I have been unable to trace Nelly, Geoffrey, Ralph and Henry any further. There are no records for them in Australia. As for Damaris, she married Albert Edward Baggaley in Newhaven, Sussex on 7 June 1919. She had served with the W.A.A.C. (or Queen Mary’s Women’s Auxilliary) during the First World War. Two years later, Damaris and Albert, along with their young daughter, Anne, departed for Canada. They settled in Manitoba and had several additional children. Damaris taught for many years and passed away in Winnipeg in 1986.

Now, another odd thing is that on her 1921 Canadian arrivals form, she said that the nearest relation in the country from whence she came (England) was her mother – Mrs. N. Cudworth living at 610 Holloway Road in London. Sooo… perhaps Nelly and her brood of boys didn’t stay in Australia but returned to the UK? The 1921 Census would help to solve this but… it isn’t due to be released until January 2022. Only a few months from now! In the meantime…

I’m not quite sure what to make out of all this. My suspicion is that Nelly had four illegitimate children, three of whom were possibly sired by John Cudworth Whitebrook and the last one by Henry Houghton. All of this is based on the baptism registrations for Nelly and her children. I have been unable to find a marriage registration for Nelly, nor birth registrations for the children. More questions than answers. But, let’s return to our original quarry, John Cudworth Whitebrook, illustrious defence counsel for Werner Walti.

Theological & Legal Studies

John attended London University where he graduated in 1909 (age 36) with a First Class in Philosophy. On 18 June 1909, John was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn where he resided (or had offices) at 24 Old Buildings. This is confirmed by the documents in Walti’s various files which note that J.C. Whitebrook’s return address was 24 Old Buildings. A bit more information about John comes from an entry in the 1909 International Genealogical Directory:

John Cudworth Whitebrook (professional), Palaeographist and Record Agent, 32, Upper Park Road, New Southgate, London, N., is interested in CUDWORTH-WHITEBROOK-WASE-PRICE, Radnorshire, 18th cent. –PATTERSON, Alnwick–Wanted places and dates of birth, marriage and death of Wyan and William Cudworth (b. about 1720), probably in Westminster.

I’m not 100% sure that this is our man, although many barristers had rooms at Lincoln’s Inn (24 Old Buildings) while maintaining a residence elsewhere, so it is possible that he resided at 32, Upper Park Road. The name is quite unique and further information leads me to lean towards this being him.

Second(?) Marriage, Children & War

In the first quarter of 1913, a few months after Nelly and her bevy of sons left for Australia, John Cudworth Whitebrook married Margaret Elise Ball in London. The couple had a son a year later, on 15 February, William John Cudworth Whitebrook. The happy little family would be disrupted by the First World War and further children would have to wait.

According to the University of London list of students who fought in the First World War, John served as a Lieutenant with the M.G.C. (Machine Gun Corps). Another document, however, notes that he served from 1915 to 1919 as a Lieutenant with the Mounthmouthsire and Manchester regiments. He apparently served in France for 8 months. His medal card notes that he started as a Private with the Essex Regiment and then served as a Lieutenant with the Mounthmouthshire Regiment and then the Manchester Regiment. John appears to have been stationed in Britain for much of the war and he and Margaret added a daughter to their small family. Margaret Lucy Whitebrook was born 1 June, 1918, in Erpingham, Norfolk. John wouldn’t see much of his infant daughter for he was posted to France on 4 July 1918, a few months before the end of the war. Luckily for him, the war would soon be over.

Post-War Family

After John returned from military service, he and Margaret welcomed more children into their life. Florence was born 1920 in Holborn followed by John two years later. Another son, Robert Whitebrook, was born in 1931 in Croydon, London. Five children born over the span of almost 20 years would have made for interesting family dynamics. William born in 1914, Margaret in 1918, Florence in 1920, John in 1922 and Robert born nine years after that in 1931. By the time Robert was born, William would have been 17 years old and ready to head out into the world.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, John and Margaret’s address in the London Electoral Registers was 24 Old Buildings at Lincoln’s Inn Ward. According to the 1939 National Registration, Margaret and son Robert were living at 29 Frewell Buildings in Holborn. Margaret was born 23 November 1890 and was married with household duties. Robert was born 9 October 1931 and was at school. As for John, he was listed as a barrister and retired Lieutenant residing at 24 Old Buildings (Lincoln’s Inn) with three other individuals. Two of the records are closed but one could suppose that at least one of them would be his middle son, John (born 1922). The other might be daughter Florence Gertrude Whitebrook (born 1920). Again… the releasing of the 1921 Census can’t come soon enough!

The final entry in the 1939 National Registration (24 Old Buildings) is for William J(ohn) F(rancis) Whitebrook born 5 February 1895. This was John’s nephew, the son of his brother William Patterson Whitebrook. Rather too many William’s for my taste… and John’s! Nephew William was a married soldier who had enlisted with the Armed Forces on 1 October 1939 and served as a Lieutenant with the Essex Regiment eventually transferring to the Pioneer Corps. This was understandable given that nephew William had joined the Essex Regiment as a Private in the First World War. He had finished that war as a 2nd Lieutenant. Nephew William would go on to survive two world wars and died in 1952 in Harrow, Middlesex.

John Jr., the middle son of our quarry, and possibly one of the closed records in the 1939 National Registration, attended military college and was promoted from Cadet to 2nd Lieutenant on 2 May 1942 with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. He may have been studying law at the Inner Temple, as that was the address given in 1942. John took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 at Arromanches. He was one of the unfortunate many who were killed in action on that day. John had been attached to the 1st Battalion of the Dorset Regiment (B Company) and is buried at Bayeux War Cemetery (XI. H. 9.) in France.

The other closed record from the 1939 National Registration, might be Florence Gertrude Whitebrook. She would go on to marry Raymond A. Cooke in 1942. Florence passed away in 2010.

As for, Margaret Lucy (born 1918), she was a teacher working at a school at Aldershot in 1939. She would eventually serve with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Margaret married Rowland Cyril Kyrle Money in 1940 who would go on to become a Major with the Royal Engineers. Margaret and Rowland had at least six children. Margaret passed away in 1991 while Rowland passed in 2010 at the ripe old age of 95.

That leaves John’s eldest son, William John Cudworth Whitebrook, who had married Florence R.A. Salmon in the third quarter of 1937 in Elham, Kent. In the 1939 National Register, Florence was living with her parents in Folkestone, Kent at 57 Linden Crescent. The record below her name is closed which likely means it’s one of her children, likely Maureen who was born in 1938. As for William, it would appear that he was serving in Palestine with the Royal West Kent Regiment in 1939. In 1940, William was awarded a General Service Medal for service as a Private in Palestine. At a later date, he was transferred to the Royal Army Pay Corps, still as a Private. I suspect that William may have been a career soldier. In 1951, his wife, Florence, and their three children (Maureen, Timothy and Christopher) travelled from Southampton to Singapore aboard the S.S. Empire Windrush, a troop transport. Florence was the wife of an soldier and had been living in married quarters at The Nothe, Weymouth, Dorset. It’s likely that the family was travelling with William as the Royal West Kent Regiment was deployed in Malaya from 1951-1954. William John passed away in 1986 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

The youngest son, Robert, born in 1931, may have passed away in 1953 at the age of 21 years. Other than that, I have not been able to trace him.

Archbishop of Lindisfarne

So far, except for the children sired with Nelly Cook(e), John Cudworth Whitebrook’s life seems relatively normal. A married family man who became a barrister and then, like so many others, served his country during the First World War. The one anomaly in his career would be that he defended a German spy (Werner Walti) in 1941 at the age of 68, when most gentleman might have graciously embraced retirement. And yet… there is another anomaly in John’s life.

Although John was baptized into the Church of England as an infant, he and his brother, William Patterson Whitebrook, both studied theology and became embroiled in a religious tangle. There was a movement afoot among some Anglicans in the United Kingdom who desired to restore communion with the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See. One of the key players was Henry Bernard Ventham (1873-1944) who had been ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 1898 by Mar Timotheos I (Joseph-René Vilatte), a “wandering bishop”. On 19 February, 1905, Ventham (ordained Bishop of Dorchester in 1903 by Mar Timotheos) and two others who signed themselves as “Vergilius, Archbishop of Whitby” and “Cuthbert, Archbishop of Lindisfarne” (likely William and John Whitebrook), joined together to establish the Society for the Restoration of Apostolic Unity, an attempt to revive the Order of Corporate Reunion. Apparently the “Independent Catholic Church of Whitebrook” was based at 5 New Court, Lincoln’s Inn and counted a large number of legal men as members. The church did not survive the First World War and John’s brother, William passed away in 1915, but not before being reconciled with Rome.

One site noted that John Cudworth Whitebrook initially started his career as a teacher and was interested in genealogy, paleography and antiquarianism. After the First World War, he taught in Paris before returning to England where his career culminated in the headmastership of a private school. Having retired, he read for the Bar, as had his brother and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn. He practised law until well into his eighties, when failing health led to a second retirement. He reconciled with Rome in 1960, a year before his death. The chronology of some of these events, however, doesn’t quite jive with the genealogical records. For example, John was definitely admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1909, not after the war.

John also seems to have been a bit of an author writing at least two books:

• 1922 – A Chapter of Secret History
• 1945 – The consecration of the Most Reverend Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, effected by the Rt. Rev. Anthony Kitchen called Dunstan; monk of the Order of St Benedict; sometime prior of students at Gloucester college, and abbot of Eynsham, thereafter bishop of Llandaff. (This book looks at the “much debated” origin of Anglican Orders.)

Later Life

I was unable to discover much about Whitebrook’s later years. I did learn that John Cudworth Whitebrook, of 24 Old Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, died 9 February 1961. He had passed away at 1 Halls Row in Horndon-on-the-Hill in Essex. His daughter, Margaret Lucy Money was listed on the probate documents. John’s wife, Margaret would live on for another two decades, passing away in 1982 in Camden, London.

Conclusion

This has been a long and tortuous path, trying to trace Werner Walti’s defence counsel! John Cudworth Whitebrook did not live a simple life… from his affiliation with a splintered fragment of Catholicism, to a mysterious dalliance with Nelly Cook, to his defence of a German spy. I have to admit that I was quite impressed with Whitebrook’s attempts to appeal Walti’s case. He gave it his best shot, but really, many of his arguments would have carried more weight had they been presented before Walti’s trial. But… neither Walti, nor Drücke had the benefit of legal counsel before they stood before Justice Asquith. Rather a tangled web.

In conducting this research, I did a quick dig on Drücke’s barrister, the mysterious H.B. Figg, also known as Hubert B. Figg. I admit to being a bit perplexed by this gentleman. It would appear that there is only one Hubert B. Figg in the genealogical records – Hubert Burdett Figg. This is a rather unique name but yields some rather problematic information.

In 1911, Hubert Burdett Figg (born 1890) was a chemist’s assistant. He served as an officer in the First World War with the Liverpool Regiment. After the war, he is listed as a chemist and druggist in Berkhamsted. As late as the 1939 National Registration (Sept 1939), he is listed as a pharmacist in Berkhamsted, northwest of London, living with his parents. And then, in 1945, we have Hubert Burdett Figg living at Dr. Johnson’s Buildings in London (part of Lincoln’s Inn).

Wait, what? Hubert Burdett Figg, the pharmacist, became a barrister? The man who was listed as a pharmacist in 1939 was a qualified barrister by 1941 when he was tapped to defend a German spy upon a capital charge? Puzzling, to say the least. Even more so when one learns that the Hubert B. Figg Pharmacy STILL exists at 90 High Street, Berkhamsted. The pharmacy’s Instagram page notes that they have been “Serving Berkhamsted and the surrounding villages since 1869, founded in the oldest shop in England” (173 High Street). More research required.

N.B. 2022 01 25 – 1921 Census Results

I had a look in the 1921 census for Nellie and her children:

• Nelly Cudworth (b1871) – not found. According to Damaris’ 1921 passenger manifest, her mother, Nelly, was living at 610 Holloway Road in London. Have not been able to confirm that.
• Damaris Cudworth (b1899) – not found in the Canadian census – had married Albert Edward Baggaley in 1919 in England and moved to Canada in 1921. Couldn’t find him either.
• Ralph Cudworth (1900/1901) – not found. Possibly passed away in 1918 in Thanet, Kent as Raphe Cudworth (he was listed as Raphe in the 1911 census with his brother Geoffrey when they were at school).
• Geoffrey Cudworth (b1901) – living in Islington, London in 1921. He was living with Abraham William, Annie Ambler and 3 others according to the index. I have not viewed the record.
• Henry Cudworth (b1908) – not found.

I did find John Cudworth Whitebrook (incorrectly indexed as John Andworth Whitebrook) living in London with wife, Margaret Elsie, son, William Cudworth and two others. Given the incorrect transcription on Cudworth, it is possible that Nellie and her brood are in the 1921 census somewhere, just lost and incorrectly indexed. Given that it costs £2.50 to £3.50 to look up one entry, further research will have to wait several years until the contents of the census are more widely available.

Sources

The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi – has a page on William Patterson Whitebrook which mentions J.C. Whitebrook

The Order of Corporate Reunion by Bertil Perrson – pdf document with a bit of information on the Whitebrook brothers

Western Orthodox University – pdf document on Joseph-René Vilatte – mentions the “Independent Catholic Church of Whitebrook

Ancestry – genealogical records

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