Scotland Yard Casebook by Lock Joan

Author:Lock, Joan [Lock, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2015-03-21T23:00:00+00:00

9 The Local Inspector

Since the advent of the local inspector, Scotland Yard men no longer held centre stage alone. They now had competition from one or two very keen and highly successful local inspectors, and a good example was George Abberline of H Division. George was one of the first local inspectors to be taken on in 1878. By 1883, an Old Bailey judge was having to admit that he had run out of superlatives to describe Inspector Abberline’s work, having complimented him so many times, that it was hard to know ‘what to say afresh’. It seems sad that today, the man is remembered chiefly for his association with a major investigative failure — the Jack the Ripper enquiry.

What Dorset-born Abberline had in his favour was fifteen years of solid and varied police experience., local knowledge — he had been on crime-ridden H Division for five years and his new work kept him there, and assistants who shared that knowledge. (He had also known tragedy in his personal life. His first wife, Martha, died of consumption only two months after their marriage. Eight years later, at the age of 32, he married again, just before becoming a local inspector.)

The arrival of local inspectors had also proved useful to Yard officers in that, at last, they had more professional local assistance when they were called in on cases — if they were called in. In addition, the new system began to provide the Yard with a steady flow of experienced, streetwise detectives, with which to leaven the ranks of the more privileged, educated linguists — some of whom had gained direct entry into the department. Several of the local inspectors soon began making a name for themselves because they were so keen. Starting from lower down life’s ladder they were hungrier for success and more grateful for an interesting job.

Abberline, a former ‘clocksmith’, began his police career at the age of nineteen on busy N, or Islington Division, where his thief-catching skills were soon noticed. He was often put into plain clothes to nab the pickpockets in the rough Caledonian Road area, or those who preyed on the crowds attending the many public events taking place at Islington’s huge and splendid, new Agricultural Hall (later Royal Agricultural Hall), built by the Smithfield Club to exhibit their cattle. He also went undercover, following Fenians, and at one point was employed in plain clothes on this work for a year. Later, he became acting inspector in Kentish Town, before moving on in 1871 to become a divisional detective sergeant on Y or Highgate Division. Two years later, he was back in uniform again, as an inspector on H or Whitechapel Division, acknowledged to be a major crime centre. Finally, in 1878, he became H Division’s local inspector — a job he felt so suited him that it is said he resisted invitations to be ‘promoted’ to Scotland Yard.

Despite having only a small patch, in contrast to the roving commissions enjoyed by the

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