The Guv'nors by Dick Kirby

Author:Dick Kirby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRUE CRIME / General
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2011-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

Capstick had been promoted to divisional detective inspector in 1943 and had been retained on the Squad; now he received his fortieth and final commissioner’s commendation for his work in a case of shopbreaking just two weeks after his posting to ‘W’ Division on 8 January 1945. However welcome this posting might have been, away from the rigours of four very tough wartime years on the Flying Squad, it would last one day short of a year. A revolutionary concept of police work was being hatched which would represent a rather large challenge, and it was advancing in Capstick’s direction.

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With six years of war at an end, Londoners sat back and licked their wounds. During the war, crime – and in particular, violent and sexual offences – had increased dramatically. Whenever spirits and cigarettes were available, they carried heavy customs duty. These, and food supplies, consumer goods and clothing became the target for thieves and receivers. Normally law-abiding men and women stole goods from work, obtained ration coupons using false names and purchased stolen or forged ration coupons. Companies overcharged on Government contracts, accounts were falsified and civil servants were bribed to secure contracts. Desertion from the forces, ration coupon and black market offences became very prevalent. In a fiercely patriotic report, an exasperated chief constable of the CID wrote to the assistant commissioner (crime):

Black Market offences have been the main cause of the extra work and it is pleasing to see that the sewer rats and traitors who impede the war effort by committing this class of offence are being brought to justice.

But not enough of them were. With rationing still in place – and before long it would substantially increase – the situation was tailor-made for a crime explosion to become inevitable, and so it did; with the Metropolitan Police 4,000 men short, indictable offences for 1945 reached a record level of 128,954. Circumstances dictated that a revolutionary concept be implemented in order to deal with this predicament. Percy Worth MBE, the chief constable of the CID, provided the answer. Worth suggested that a small group of experienced officers with proven sources of information be detached from ordinary duties to infiltrate gangs of thieves and black marketeers and that sufficient funds be made available to reward the informants. The officers, said Worth, were not to get involved in carrying out the arrests themselves (although, for obvious reasons, it would later become clear that this was not always possible) but to hand the work over to Flying Squad and divisional CID Officers.

Capstick was chosen to lead the team; in turn, he selected Detective Inspector (Second Class) Henry Valentine Clark – he kept quiet about his middle name, and was known always as Henry or ‘Nobby’ – who was one of the best informed officers in South London and who possessed a punch like the kick of a mule. The third and fourth members of the team were Capstick’s Flying Squad contemporaries, John Gosling and Matthew Brinnand. Gosling had served

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