There is no poem by Swinburne called ‘The Lord of Intrigue’, which is apparently a parody of the poem ‘The Execution’, one of the Ingoldsby Legends by Richard Harris Barham (1788–1845).
Pollaky had become a well-known figure whose name even featured in the correspondence of the most unexpected people. On 28 November 1882, Friedrich Engels, co-author with Karl Marx of the Communist Manifesto wrote to Eduard Bernstein, who was in Zurich, a letter with the following curious passage:
Wenn Sie das Resume der Broschüre benutzen wollen, so ist das mir ganz recht. Die Schlußnote erfolgt jetzt bald. Die Schmidt-Affäre ist sehr schön. Der Pollaky hat seit längerer Zeit ein Privatpolizeibüro in London: Im Adreßbuch steht unter Inquiry Officer (es sind ihrer 18 aufgezählt) Pollaky, Ignatius Paul, 13 Paddington Green, W. (gar nicht weit von mir), Correspondent to ‘Foreign Police Gazette’.
Translated into English:
If you want to use the Resume of the Brochure, that’s all right by me. The final touch will follow soon. The Schmidt Affair is very good. Pollaky has long had a Private Police Office in London: In the address book he is listed under Inquiry Officer (there are 18 listed) Pollaky, Ignatius Paul, 13 Paddington Green, W. (not far from me), correspondent to ‘Foreign Police Gazette’.
More mysteries – what was the paper that Pollaky was at that time apparently correspondent for, what was Engel’s interest in him? A clue to the latter may be contained within the paragraph. It seems that the ‘Schmidt Affair’ referred to by Engels involved the unmasking of a German police spy in Zurich called Johann Karl Friedrich Elias Schmidt, one of a number who had tried to infiltrate the doings of those who were developing the Communist idea. Schmidt had pretended to be a merchant who had found it necessary to leave Dresden in a hurry on account of some shady dealings. On arrival in Zurich he had, according to Marxist politician August Bebel, recommended the founding of a ‘fund for assassinations’. This seems to have been the cause of some amusement, when, in 1898, Bebel mentioned this in a speech he made in Berlin, but perhaps for Pollaky there were more serious ramifications. For it seems that these police spies were agents of the Prussians, and surely Engel’s mention of Pollaky immediately after referring (possibly in joking fashion) to the Schmidt Affair implies that Pollaky himself had some involvement. Further investigation uncovered the original brochure referred to by Engels. A pamphlet of sixty-four pages published at the end of 1882 which names Schmidt and other German police agents. The booklet includes thirty-four letters written to Schmidt. The final two are from Pollaky, written in German (and printed, as is the entire document, in Gothic font). This socialist brochure was banned in Germany after its publication. Pollaky’s letters read as follows:
Letter 1
London, 14./10. 82
13 Paddington Green W.
privé !
Geehrter Herr!
Ich danke Ihnen für Ihre sehr geschätzte Zuschrift vom 8.c.
Noch vor 3 Monaten wäre mir Ihre Offerte sehr willkommen gewesen, doch heute ist die Nothwendigkeit hiezu nicht mehr vorhanden – und von wenigerem Interesse für hiesigen Bedarf. – Ich selbst bin der Unsicht, daß der Kram kaum die Mühe lohnt – und an maßgebender Stelle scheint man keine Geldopfer machen zu wollen! wohl deshalb, weil man aus Erfahrung gelernt – daß wenig dabei erlangt ist – und daß Uebel fort besteht* – ich sage Ihnen dies natürlich nicht, um Sie abzulenken, mir interessante Mittheilungen zu machen, sondern um Ihnen den Standpunkt klar zu machen.
Herr Krim-Rath J.W. hat mir Sie als einen recht ehrenhaften Agenten empfohlen und will ich Ihnen gleich im Vorhinein reinen Wein einschenken.
Sollten Sie mir jedoch etwas wirklich wichtiges, noch nicht Bekanntes mittheilen, so bin ich gerne bereit, Ihnen für solche Mittheilungen ansehnliches Honorar zu zahlen, doch nur unter der Bedingung, daß die mir gemachten Mittheilungen nicht andern Orts schon feilgeboten worden find.
Das ist das ‘sine qua non’. Jedenfalls ist es mir lieb, daß ich Ihre Adresse für eventuelle Fälle besitze, es dürften einige Aufträge folgen der Zeit, wer weiß?
Ihr ergebener Pollaky.
Translation of the above:
London, 14./10. 82
13 Paddington Green W.
privé !
Dear Sir!
I thank you for your valued letter of the 8.c. [8 October]
Only 3 months before your offer would have been very welcome to me, but today the necessity no longer exists – and of less interest for our needs. – I myself am the unseen, the affair is hardly worth the trouble – and it seems that those in charge do not want to make any sacrifice of money! probably because someone learned from experience – that little is gained thereby – and that evil persists* – I do not say this, of course, to distract you, to make communications interesting, but to help make the point clear.
Criminal Investigator Mr J.W. has recommended you to me as a very honourable agent and I will tell you the plain truth from the start.
Should you have however something really important for me, not yet known, then I am willing to pay you a handsome fee for such information, but only under the condition that the information is given to me and has not already been offered for sale somewhere else.
This is the ‘sine qua non’. Anyway, it’s good for me that I have your address for any future cases that, it should be that some orders may follow over time, who knows?
Yours sincerely Pollaky.
Editor’s note published below the first letter:
* Dies Geständnis aus polizei Munde ist kostbar. Allerdings ist der geriebene Pollaky nicht bereaukratischer Polizist, sondern Detektive, auf eigene Rechnung. Und er versteht zu rechnen. [This acknowledgement of police views is valuable. However, the wily Pollaky is not a bureaucratic policeman, but a private detective. And he understands what is expected.]
Letter 2
London, 20./10. 82
Geehrte Herr!
Ihre gefl. [geffälig] Zuschrift vom 17. ds. mit Bericht über Sozialisten dort richtig erhalten – der Inhalt Ihres Berichtes ist wohl im Allgemeinen sehr interessant, doch entbehrt solcher einen positiven Wert und ist man nicht geneigt, auf diesen Kram (recte borstige Umtriebe) auch nur das Geringste zu verwenden.
Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle!!
Mir thut es Ihrethalben leib – doch will ich Sie gleich von dem richtigen Standpunkt in Kenntnis gesetzt sehen.
Also Sand darüber!
Ich bin nicht mehr Katholisch als der Papst. Sie verstehen dies? Ich hoffe jedoch daß in Zukunft sich eine Gelegenheit darbieten wird, wenn ich von Ihren Diensten Gebrauch zu machen nicht versäumen würde.
Ihr ergebenster Pollaky.*
Translation of the above:
Dear Sir!
Your kind letter of 17 ds. with report on the Socialists arrived safely – the content of your report is probably in general very interesting, but lacks such a positive value and one is not inclined to use this stuff (properly called ‘bristly plotting’) even the slightest.
Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle! [The game is not worth the candle!] I do it for its own sake – but I would like you to have the correct viewpoint of the information.
So put sand over! [Forget it?]
I am no more Catholic than the Pope. You understand this? But I hope that in the future, there will be an occasion when I can make use of your services.
Yours faithfully Pollaky.*
Editor’s note published below the second letter:
* Es ist dies der Geheimpolizist, an welchen Schmidt durch Weller in Dresden gewiesen und empfohlen ist. [This is the secret policeman who was rejected and recommended by Schmidt through Weller in Dresden.]
So it would seem that Pollaky was approached by the German authorities to spy on their behalf against the Socialists, just as he had been approached a little over twenty-one years earlier by the United States to spy on the Confederates. Whether he actively kept an eye on the Socialists or not is impossible to say. From the tone of his letters, it would appear that he did not take this t
ask on with the same enthusiasm and energy that had filled his days all those years ago. Nevertheless, his letters appear in the brochure, and he cannot have been pleased to discover this, if indeed he did find out. Pollaky always had his ear to the ground so it would seem unusual if he were unaware of this publication.
The Socialists, if they believed that Pollaky had some involvement with the activities of the German police, might not have been pleased. Pollaky may have thought that there was a good chance that they might resent his implied interference. Could this have influenced his decision to take early retirement? Might this be the reason that he is known to have kept a revolver nearby after he was retired?
In a letter to The Times dated 22 April 1911, Pollaky wrote that he had been the London Correspondent of the International Criminal Police Gazette for more than a quarter of a century. On 10 May 1914, he wrote a letter to The Times recommending that cooperation between individual police forces of various countries would be more effective than an ‘International Bureau’. This letter, published two days later, is signed ‘RITTER VON POLLAKY, formerly the London Correspondent for the Internationales Criminal-Polizeiblatt’. It would be convenient to assume that this refers to the paper known in French as the, Moniteur International de Police Criminelle and in English as The International Criminal Police Times. Based in Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany this was a trilingual paper with text in French, German, and English with photographs of wanted men and women and descriptions of their crimes. It celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its founding in January 1906 and was founded in 1886 by Polizeirat [Superintendent] Travers. (Copies of it are now fairly rare.) However, though the 1882 Post Office Directory lists Pollaky as, ‘Correspondent to the Foreign Police Gazette’, the Internationales Criminal-Polizeiblatt had not at that time been founded. As early as 1859 he had declared on the death certificate of his first wife that he was a ‘Newspaper Correspondent’, but this refers to the Morning Post. There is also no evidence that he wrote for the American National Police Gazette, founded in 1845, a tabloid which eventually became a fairly racy sports orientated paper. And so the mystery remains; what was the newspaper Pollaky wrote for? Surely not the Police Gazette of London, for that was not an international paper.
He did, though, write articles for international journals. In December 1898, the monthly journal Kosmodike — Periodical for International Law Matters (to give its English subtitle) which was published in Germany for only three years (1898–1900), and boasted articles in French, German, and English, printed a piece in German entitled Die Londoner Polizei [The London Police] by Criminalrath Ritter Pollaky. He had been retired for over sixteen years, and much had changed in the Police force in that time. He expressed his admiration for the London Metropolitan Police and Assistant Commissioner Sir Robert Anderson, showing particular appreciation for the handling of terrorism and criminals by the former, and the astuteness of the latter, but still seemed not to think too much of the other London force the ‘so-called’ City Police. After referring to new treaties of extradition between European countries, he finished with a paean to the London policeman which translates as follows: ‘The London constable remains in his nature a pattern of civilisation and human love, as it is found nowhere else.’
In any case, there can be no doubt that he felt fully entitled to call himself, ‘Ritter von Pollaky’; he had, after all, received his Ritterkreuz (2nd Class) in 1871.
Aside from the exotic and mystic aura that surrounded him, it would seem that his name certainly lent itself to humour – witness W.S. Gilbert’s use of it more than once (see Appendix 2), as well as the fun made of him by the Tomahawk and Fun. For a pleasingly humorous effect, try repeating ‘Paddington Pollaky’ over and over again at a moderate tempo. From 1861, Gilbert had written poems for Fun.
In 1881, Pollaky found a kind of immortality when Gilbert used his name in a lyric for his new comic opera, with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan: Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride. First performed at the Opera Comique Theatre (now demolished) on 23 April, it transferred to the newly built Savoy Theatre in the Strand on 10 October the same year. Before its first performance there, Richard D’Oyly Carte, owner of the theatre and the third part of the triumvirate with Gilbert and Sullivan, famously appeared before the audience and broke a glowing lightbulb to prove the safety of a new technology: the Savoy Theatre was the first public building in the world to be lit by electricity.
Among the characters in Patience is Colonel Calverley of the Dragoon Guards, whose first song describes the attributes necessary to make a heavy dragoon. These include: ‘The keen penetration of Paddington Pollaky.’
We might ask whether the nickname, ‘Paddington Pollaky’ was used by Gilbert in a way that was already in use, or whether Gilbert, with his usual facility for rhyme and metre actually coined the phrase himself. I haven’t found it used earlier than 1881, the year Gilbert used it in Patience. And this may be the place to mention that Pollaky’s newly coined sobriquet, was its first famous use. Not until 1958 would ‘Paddington’ again become a popular sobriquet, and that for the fictional Paddington Bear created by Michael Bond. In 1939, though, the Laurel and Hardy film A Chump at Oxford was released. Stan and Ollie go to study at Oxford University. Stan gets a bump on the head and realises that he is in fact Lord Paddington, a brilliant scholar who had gone missing from the university some years before. So brilliant is he that he agrees to help Einstein with a problem he is having with his Theory of Relativity.
Gilbert had used Pollaky’s name twice before. His first recorded uses of Pollaky’s name were in his plays No Cards and An Old Score, both from 1869; the relevant texts are given, together with the full text of Colonel Calverley’s song, in Appendix 4. As a theatre-goer, and as a keen reader of newspapers where these pieces were reviewed, was Pollaky aware of these mentions of his name? He cannot have been unaware of this last mention, for with it came a certain amount of notoriety. Patience has outlasted Pollaky’s name in fame. His name has been sung and heard at every performance of this piece, and there have been very many of those.
By 1881, Pollaky was 53, and retirement in Brighton with Mary Ann was not far away. Might the new notoriety given him by W.S. Gilbert’s use of his name in Patience have irritated him enough to have been one factor in his decision to end his practice as a private investigator? As seen from earlier newspaper items, he was sometimes gently mocked, but now his name was a byword for something humorous. Every one of his obituaries mentioned his name in association with Gilbert’s lyric. One wonders whether Pollaky as a theatre goer ever saw a performance of Patience. It was not the last time that Gilbert used real personalities in his lyrics. Famously, Captain Shaw of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was present at the first night of Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre when Alice Barnett, as the Queen of the Fairies, opened her arms out to the audience as she sang in her song the lines:
Oh, Captain Shaw!
Type of true love kept under!
Could thy brigade
With cold cascade
Quench my great love, I wonder!
Had Pollaky heard Richard Temple (the creator of the role of Colonel Calverley) sing about him in their previous production?
Pollaky is mentioned in passing in a number of novels including The French Lieutenant’s Woman (John Fowles, 1969), and Rupert Godwin (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 1867). Perhaps the most unusual reference to him is to be found in A Sherlock Holmes Companion edited by Peter Haining. First published by W. H. Allen in 1980, page 207 (page 264 of the revised edition, Warner Books, 1994) is the conclusion of a short chapter entitled ‘Holmes Beyond the Grave’. This chapter describes a séance which seemingly took place on 7 July 1955 in America, in which the spirit of Arthur Conan Doyle was apparently interviewed. On being asked if Paddington Pollaky had helped with the Sherlock Holmes stories, the shade of Doyle is supposed to have answered, ‘He was there’. The séance was, according to Haining’s introduction, reported in the Baltimore Sun. Haining goes on to say that certain
persons were, ‘attempting to prove that Holmes was modelled on Pollaky’. In April 1955 an American journal called, The Victorian Newsletter announced on its last page that one B.D. Emmart was ‘working on a biography of Pollaky, most famous of Victorian Private Detectives’. One might wonder if this (never published) work, the intended product of Lecturer in Journalism, Barney D. Emmart (1923–89), who lived in Baltimore, had something to do with the séance.
One might wonder if Pollaky influenced Agatha Christie when she created Poirot. Now here there are more similarities; the lavish moustache, the foreign origin, the characterful speech – good but not quite English. Here again, problems arise. Firstly, Poirot as originally devised was quite old, certainly a lot older than usually portrayed in film and television adaptations, whereas Pollaky retired from the business of private investigation at the age of 54. Since Pollaky was no longer well known by the time Poirot was created, one must ask not only if Agatha Christie knew of him, but also whether she could possibly have known what Pollaky looked like as images of him were very rare. She certainly does not seem to have mentioned him in any of her writings.
13
Retirement
Pollaky retired abruptly, it would seem, in 1882 and moved with Mary Ann and their family to Brighton. Their surviving children were approaching adulthood. Minna was 18, Francis was 16, Rose was 14 and Mabel was 12. Mrs Pollaky was now 41, and Pollaky himself was 54. That year he had found it necessary to place the following advertisement on the front page of The Times:
Paddington' Pollaky, Private Detective Page 24