The Rowers of Vanity Fair/De Rutzen A

De Rutzen, Albert

“A Model Magistrate” (WAG), August 16, 1900

He is the third son of the late Charles, Baron de Rutzen of Slebeck Park, in Pembrokeshire; he was born sixty-nine years ago; he began life at Eton, and continued it at Trinity, Cambridge; and he became a Barrister of the Inner Temple at the age of six-and-twenty. His conduct of his own (and of other people's) affairs at the Bar is forgotten; for he took upon him the duties of a Magistrate more than thirty years ago -- as Stipendiary at Merthyr Tydfil. There he became a Justice of the Peace and Deputy-Chairman of Quarter Sessions for Glamorganshire, and did so well that he was summoned to a London Police Court in 1876. He sat successfully and successively at Marylebone, Westminster, and Marlborough Street; and last year he was "moved on" to Bow Street, where he is now dispensing equal Justice among sinners. He is a big-hearted Magistrate, full of cruel and sordid experiences which have not hardened his soul. On the contrary, Mr. De Rutzen is a very honest, painstaking, kindly mentor to those whose distress brings them before him; and, despite the tedious monotony of his Office, he never fails in any one of his virtues.

He is a model Magistrate.

Albert de Rutzen (1831-1913) rowed no. 3 for Cambridge in the two Boat Races of 1849. He appeared in Vanity Fair on becoming Chief Magistrate in London, a post he held until retirement in 1913.