The Chieftain: Victorian True Crime Through The Eyes of a Scotland Yard Detective
Page 1
To Meg, Kate and Rob
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 The Journey to Scotland Yard
2 A Murderous Year
3 The Fenians are Coming
4 Back to Basics
5 The Tichborne Claimant, Theft and Fraud
6 Suicide, Accidental Death or Murder?
7 The Great Turf Swindle and Police Corruption
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Plate Section
Copyright
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has only been feasible because of the patience, support and encouragement that I have received from my wife Meg and our children, Robert and Katherine. The realisation that one of my great-great-grandfathers had been a detective in the London Metropolitan Police emerged from research that I was undertaking on family documents written by my grandfather, Charles Payne. Without these papers and the care taken to preserve them by my grandmother, Ida Payne, and my father, Rupert Payne, there would have been no such book.
The research that I have undertaken has been greatly assisted by a number of outstanding national and regional archives and libraries. In particular, my thanks go to the following organisations and their staff: The National Archives (Kew), the British Library (St Pancras) and the British Newspaper Library (Colindale), Westminster City Archives, the Parliamentary Archives London, the Metropolitan Police Historical Collection, Cumbria Libraries (Kendal), Lancashire Libraries (Carnforth), Warrington Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, the University of Lancaster Library and the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. Online facilities that have been invaluable have included Wikipedia, Ancestry.co.uk, Old Bailey Proceedings online, the Cengage digital archives of The Times and nineteenth-century British Library Newspapers.
I have been helped and advised by several people who have read and commented on draft sections of the book. Clive Bravery and Robert Payne have kindly read all chapters and provided helpful comments. Vincent Comerford, Padraic Kennedy, Rohan McWilliam, Canice O’Mahony, Michael McCarthy, Stefan Petrow and Niall Whelehan have given me the benefit of their academic expertise on individual chapters. Particular thanks go to Niall Whelehan for introducing me to the first-hand accounts of the Fenian conspiracy written by Octave Fariola, and to Padraic Kennedy for providing me with references to George Clarke that he had located in the National Archives of Ireland. Other individuals who have provided information and encouragement that has been beneficial to the content and progress of this book include: Nene Adams, John Archer, Phillip Barnes-Warden, the late Maggie Bird, Phillip Bonney, Andrew Brooks, Sioban Clarke, His Honour Judge Peter Clarke, Nanette and Michael Crenol, Paul Dew, Gillian and Graham Douglas-Smith, Rod Elwood, Clive Emsley, Anne Featherstone, Martin Hagger, John Hicks, Carla King, Joan Lock, Peter and Jonathan Meiklejohn, Alan Moss, Neil Paterson, Paul Rason, Keith Skinner, Linda Stratmann, Eileen Summers, Donald Thomas, Margaret Webb and the members of the South Lakes U3A Genealogy Group. The final content and style, as well as any overlooked errors and omissions are, of course, my responsibility.
I would also like to thank Diane Clements of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons’ Hall, London, for permission to include information on George Clarke’s membership of the Freemasons. For advice on copyright issues affecting text and images from documents held in the National Archives, I am most grateful for the guidance received from Tim Padfield and Paul Johns.
I am most grateful for permission to include extracts from the following sources:
Axon Ballads, No 16 (Chetham’s Library)
Bowen-Rowlands, Ernest, Seventy-Two Years at the Bar (Macmillan Publishers, 1924)
Comerford, Vincent, The Fenians in Context: Irish Politics and Society, 1848–82 (Wolfhound Press, 1985)
Howard, Sharon, Old Bailey Proceedings Online (University of Sheffield, 2010)
Jenkins, Brian, The Fenian Problem (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008)
Kennedy, Padraic, Intelligence and National Security (18, 2003), pp. 100–27
O’Mahony, Canice and Ferguson, Kenneth, The Irish Sword (22, 2000), pp. 36–50
Petrow, Stefan, Policing Morals: The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office, 1870–1914 (1994, by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.)
Ridley, Jasper, The Freemasons (Constable & Robinson, 1999)
Thurmond Smith, Phillip, Policing Victorian London (Copyright 1985, reproduced with permission of ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
Images have been reproduced with the permission of the copyright or collection holders, where appropriate. Thanks are due to:
Mary Evans Picture Library – for photographs of Sir Richard Mayne, the Earl of Cardigan, Fenian Guy Fawkes, Michael Davitt, Sir George Lewis and Sir Edward Clarke
Getty Images – for photographs of Charles Bravo and Florence Bravo
Peter Meiklejohn – for the photograph of John Meiklejohn
Kjell Hoel and Brian Attree – for the photograph of George Hammond Whalley
The National Archives – for photographs of William Henry Walters, Charles Howard, Harry Benson, Charles Bale, Frederick Kurr and Edward Froggatt; with particular thanks to Paul Johnson
The Metropolitan Police Historical Collection – for the photographs of Superintendent Robert Walker and A Division colleagues and of Sir Edmund Henderson
The Parliamentary Archives, London – for photographs of the Tichborne Claimant and Sir Richard Assheton Cross
Every effort has been made to secure necessary permissions to reproduce copyright material, though in some cases it has proved impossible either to trace copyright holders or to generate a response. If any omissions are brought to my notice, I will be pleased to include appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting. A small number of corrections to the original text have been incorporated prior to the production of the ebook format in 2013.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Reuben Davison for introducing the concept of this book to The History Press, and to thank Simon Hamlet, Lindsey Smith, Chrissy McMorris, Abbie Wood and the team at The History Press for their enthusiasm and skill in generating the finished product.
PREFACE
Many people read about detectives, and they see things upon the stage about detectives, and they think it is a very good sort of life; but when they come to try it they find it is earning your livelihood, like lifting bricks and everything else, and they get tired of it.
Superintendent James Thomson, 18771
Many of us enjoy a good crime story and can readily recall the names of our favourite fictional detective, whether it be Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, Philip Marlowe, Hercule Poirot, Maigret, Morse, Rebus, Wallander or many others. Fewer of us, I suspect, can recall the names or exploits of those who investigate crime in the real world. Thus when I discovered that one of my ancestors, George Clarke, had been a detective chief inspector in the London Metropolitan Police in the 1870s, it meant little to me. It was only later that I found some information that was sufficient to persuade me that his story would be an intriguing one to investigate. During my research, it soon became obvious that George Clarke had been a leading figure at Scotland Yard and was well known by the Victorian London public, especially those who crossed the boundary from legality to crime. Indeed, when it comes to Victorian detectives Clarke was the real thing, but his story has essentially remained untold until now. This book sets out to open up
the world of Victorian crime and the diverse investigations of the early Scotland Yard detectives, through Clarke’s eyes and experiences.
In 1840, at 21 years of age, George Clarke joined the London Metropolitan Police. After twenty-two years’ service he had only achieved promotion to sergeant, but, in 1862, he was transferred to the small group of nine detectives that then constituted the plain-clothed detective department at Scotland Yard; the only detectives within the Metropolitan Police at that time. By May 1869 Clarke had risen to the rank of detective chief inspector and, by his retirement in January 1878, he had been second-in-command of the department for nine years. By that time he had become known to colleagues and to members of the criminal fraternity as ‘The Chieftain’ or ‘The Old Man’.
During much of his time as a detective (particularly between 1864 and 1878) Clarke’s career can be tracked reliably, not least because he was the only ‘George Clark(e)’ within the very small team in the Scotland Yard Detective Department. His involvement in major cases required the preparation of reports, several of which, bearing his clearly identifiable signature, have survived in the National Archives. In addition, the universal interest in crime as a topic for the press of the day has ensured that Clarke’s activities were well reported by the national and provincial newspapers of that era. Information on Clarke’s earlier life between 1818 and 1864 (the subject of Chapter One) is less readily accessible and its interpretation requires some informed speculation.
From 1864 onwards (the subject of Chapters Two to Seven), Clarke played a substantial part in many of the major criminal investigations and trials of the mid-Victorian period. These included: the hunt for the perpetrator of the first murder committed on a British train; the investigation of a headless corpse at Plaistow Marshes; the policing of Irish terrorism (including Clarke’s role in the arrests of a leading mercenary and a Fenian arms organiser); investigating theft at Windsor Castle and the Earl of Cardigan’s premises; breaking up gangs of foreign burglars; providing important evidence that contributed to the conviction of that greatest fraudster of his era, ‘the Tichborne Claimant’; enforcing legislation for the regulation of betting and the control of turf frauds; pursuing investigations into ‘baby farming’; solving a series of financially damaging arson attacks in the East End; eventually bringing to justice the murderer Henri de Tourville in a court in Austria; leading the police inquiry into the suspicious death of Charles Bravo (a case which titillated the British public in 1876 and has subsequently provided fertile ground for the imagination of several true-crime authors); and many other cases. Trusted by his superiors, Clarke was highly regarded and considered a safe pair of hands, until two ruthless and clever convicted fraudsters sought to offset their heavy prison sentences by giving evidence that corruption existed within the ranks of the Scotland Yard Detective Department.
British detectives have achieved only a passing mention in many accounts of Victorian crime despite the public prominence they achieved in the press of their day. Kate Summerscale’s book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is a rare exception in providing a centre-stage description of a detective’s role.2 Detective Inspector Whicher was a Scotland Yard colleague of Clarke from 1862 until Whicher’s retirement in March 1864. In the essentially chronological sequence of events that I have recounted in this book, I have likewise sought to ensure that Clarke and his police colleagues are in the spotlight again, whether their roles were heroic, merely competent, incompetent or criminal!
When trying to separate fact from fiction in the events that took place at Scotland Yard more than 130 years ago, the most important research documents have been the primary sources that have not been subjected to the ‘Chinese whisper’ effect of errors and misinterpretations that can be found in some secondary sources. The extraordinary range of research resources that we are privileged to have available in the United Kingdom have helped me locate many such documents, including Clarke’s original reports of several cases and contemporary newspaper accounts of his investigations. I have also used additional information to place Clarke’s experiences in the wider context of the events and social and political attitudes that prevailed in the mid-Victorian era. In this way, I have tried to ensure that the account that I have presented is set in context and, hopefully, objective. To help capture the atmosphere of the nineteenth century I have made frequent use of quotations from reports and newspapers, contemporary to the period, and from articles and books written by individuals who were directly involved in some of the events that are related here.
I have written this book with the general reader predominantly in mind. However, I hope that it will also prove of value to those with an academic interest in the history of policing and crime detection and, for this reason, I have included references to all documents and published texts that I have cited.
1
THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND YARD
1818–64
This town is paraded with policemen in blue
They carry a mighty big staff and make use of it too.
They batter your sconce in for pleasure,
In the station house poke you for fun,
They take all your money and treasure
And fine you five bob when they’ve done!
Tom Lawrence1
Early Days in Therfield
George Clarke was born in July 1818 in Therfield, Hertfordshire, a village on the ancient Icknield Way amongst the chalk hills some 3 miles south-west of Royston. He was the fifth child and fourth son of Robert Clarke and his wife Catherine (née Gatward). Catherine’s family, which included several members who encountered the wrath of the law, had been resident in Therfield for several generations, while Robert, whose occupation was variously recorded as ‘agricultural labourer’ or ‘gardener’, had been born in the nearby village of Barley. Married in December 1807 at Therfield church, Robert and Catherine had at least ten children between 1809 and 1833 (six boys and four girls).2
The Clarke family must have been on the margins of poverty, though they managed to avoid the workhouse. In 1821, Robert and Catherine and five of their children were sharing a house in Therfield with Catherine’s parents and six of Catherine’s younger brothers and sisters; a total of fifteen people in the one house.3 Between 1793 and 1815, the agricultural sector, and those employed in it, had profited from the need to sustain food production during the wars with France. However, after the wars had ended, peace brought only poverty to those employed on the land.4 Under these circumstances life for the Clarkes was undoubtedly hard, and it is little wonder that several of Robert Clarke’s sons explored different ways of earning a living. Amongst George Clarke’s three older brothers, only Leonard, the older brother nearest in age to George, followed in his father’s footsteps as an agricultural labourer, but later immigrated to Australia. The two eldest, Thomas and Robert, spent their lives in Therfield but earned their living from occupations other than agricultural labouring, albeit in allied trades. The eldest brother, Thomas, was variously a butcher, jobber and cattle dealer. Robert initially earned his living as a butcher and carrier, but by 1861 had become a shopkeeper in the village, a position that he occupied for much of the rest of his life.
George Clarke was the first member of his family to move to London to obtain work, joining an exodus of working men from the countryside to the city. He was not to be the last, as his younger brothers Henry and John Clark (sic) had followed suit by 1845 and 1856 respectively.5 In addition, by 1861 two of his younger sisters, Susan and Jane, had married and were based in London, living in Bethnal Green and Marylebone with their respective husbands, Samuel Sitch (a carpenter) and Joseph Norton (a fruiterer).
It seems unlikely that Clarke’s application to join the Metropolitan Police in 1840 was his first job in London, but the precise timing and nature of his initial move from Therfield is a matter of speculation. His police ‘joining records’ provide some possible clues.6 Every applicant wishing to join the Metropolitan Police had to submit three written testimonial
s of character, one of them being from their last employer.7 Clarke’s testimonials came from a Thomas Garratt of Kingston House, and from two others (whose names are illegible in the records) located at Regent’s Park and Portland Terrace, suggesting that Clarke was already working in London by 1840. Between 1837 and 1842, Kingston House, a mansion in Westminster, was let to Richard Wellesley, the eldest brother of Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington).8 Between 1822 and 1832, the Duke of Wellington’s youngest brother, Gerald Wellesley, had been Rector of Therfield at a time when George Clarke was growing up.9 The Clarke children were all baptised at Therfield church and the family were probably regular churchgoers. Thus, one possibility is that George Clarke initially gained employment in London as a member of the household staff of Richard Wellesley, following earlier contact with the Wellesley family in Therfield.
London and the Metropolitan Police
The London of 1840 was crowded, noisy, smelly and dark. The population was predominantly English but had significant ethnic minorities and was becoming increasingly multicultural. Industrial premises existed cheek by jowl with crowded housing, and the principal use of coal as a fuel added to the smell and created the smoke-blackened buildings and the fog-laden atmosphere. Gas lighting had brightened up some streets and buildings. The more select areas contained the gated communities and mansions built in the Georgian and Regency periods, owned by rich merchants, politicians and landowners in London for the season. The busy streets were crowded with handcarts and horse-drawn vehicles of all shapes and sizes, but a revolution in transport had started with the opening of a primitive terminus at Euston by the Birmingham Railway Company in 1837 and the construction of the Great Western Railway from Paddington to Maidenhead in 1838. For many it was a place of brutality and hardship; child mortality was high, life expectancy low. Numerous diseases were prevalent and the arrival of cholera in 1832 simply added to the problems faced by those living in crowded and unsanitary conditions without clean water and effective sanitation or medication. In 1840, London was also in the middle of the worst economic depression that had ever afflicted Britain. In this environment, the Metropolitan Police were doing their best to maintain order and prevent crime.10