June Wodehouse's Detectives As Sent to Elin 28 Feb 12.Qxd
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Number 48 June 2012 Wodehouse’s Detectives and Detective Agencies Having provided the names of Wodehouse’s lawyers in June 2011 ( By The Way 44) we turn our attention to the numerous private detectives and detective agencies in his books. Adair, J Sheringham Jellaby, Mr The proprietor of the Tilbury Detective Agency, he is, An employee of the Argus Detective Agency in Frozen along with Percy Pilbeam, one of the two most Assets , chapter 9. important private detectives in Wodehouse. His career has been varied – including odd-job man in Sam the Jones (1) Sudden , proprietor of a health resort in Money for A second fictional employee of The J Sheringham Adair Nothing , and valet to Ikey Llewellyn in Pearls, Girls and investigation agency in Ice in the Bedroom , chapter 17. Monty Bodkin . He would have made a fortune in fees Jones, Mr (2) had he detected himself, as he was guilty of many crimes, not the least of which were breaking and An active assistant at the Argus Enquiry Agency, in entering, administering knock-out drops, profiteering , Summer Lightning , chapter 4. and conspiring to steal a string of pearls. McGee, John Dennis The house detective at the Hotel Delehay, to whom Employed by Elmer Ford to look after Ogden in The something happened in ‘Mr McGee’s Big Day ’. Eighteen-Carat Kid . Meredith Devereux, Janice A third fictional employee of The J Sheringham Adair A fictional detective in a book being read by Medway investigation agency, in Ice in the Bedroom , chapter 17, in Hot Water , chapter 8. named after PGW’s American agent. Dolby, Daphne Mulliner, Adrian Assigned by the Eagle Eye detective agency to ensure While working for the firm of Widgery and Boon, his that Sally Fitch fulfilled the conditions required by her smile brought him a wife, financial security, and the inheritance in Bachelors Anonymous , chapter 5. membership of the Senior Bloodstain Club in ‘The Smile That Wins ’. Donahue A fictional employee of The Tilbury Detective Agency, Murphy, Mr in Sam the Sudden , chapter 19. A colleague of Mr Jones (2) at the Argus Enquiry Agency, in Summer Lightning , chapter 4. Evans A fictional employee of The J Sheringham Adair O’Neil, Timothy ‘Pieface’ investigation agency (it had dropped the name A house detective of the Hotel Cosmopolis who, in ‘Tilbury’ by now), in Ice in the Bedroom , chapter 17. Indiscretions of Archie , chapter 19, was knocked out in a brawl by Pauline Preston. Galer, Samuel Of Dodson’s Private Enquiry Agency, employed by Mr Oakes, Elliott McEachern to keep an eye on Jimmy Pitt and Spike Employee of Paul Snyder’s Detective Agency who Mullins in A Gentleman of Leisure , chapter 18. received an education from Mrs Pickett in ‘The Education of Detective Oakes ’. Hawkshaw Bertie Wooster modelled himself on this detective in his Pilbeam, Percy ability to spot Love’s Young Dream, in ‘The Inferiority The other significant detective in the oeuvre was a Complex of Old Sippy ’. Hawkshaw was a character in member of the Junior Constitutional Club and former The Ticket of Leave Man (1863), by Tom Taylor. editor of the scandal sheet Society Spice , in which By The Way Number 48 capacity he first came across Galahad Threepwood. He Empress of Blandings from the evil intentions of her was never popular with that family as Lady Julia Fish one-time prospective husband, Gregory Parsloe- considered any time the right time for him to be laid Parsloe. low with headaches, botts, glanders, quartan ague, frog in the throat and the Black Death. For more detail see Sturgis, Denman Summer Lightning and Heavy Weather . His activities An eminent private investigator who discovered the in Bill the Conqueror , Something Fishy , and Frozen injured Serene Highness the Prince of Saxburg- Assets make him the equal of Chimp Twist for sheer Leignitz in Rallying Round Old George, but ended up exhilaration. with the wrong end of the stick. It may have been him – or a completely different Sturgis – who was Pott, Claud employed by the International Detective Agency, and Friend of the 5th Earl of Ickenham, he was employed acted for Mrs Pett, both when she was a Ford and by Horace Davenport to spy on his betrothed during a under her new name, in Piccadilly Jim . He Drones Club visit to Le Touquet in Uncle Fred in the recommended the employment of one of his staff, Miss Springtime , chapter 1. Trimble, to augment the team. Putnam, Kate Amelia Trimble, Miss Employed incognito by Julia Gedge in Hot Water , she One of Mr Sturgis’s detectives, regarded as the was on the staff of the James B Flahery Agency. smartest worker in his office, she is a former strong woman in vaudeville and a first-class revolver shot, Quayle, Gridley but was disappointed with the results in Piccadilly Jim . The fictional spy whose adventures, written by Ashe Marson, so thrilled Freddie in Something Fresh . Twist, Chimp See Adair, J Sheringham. Rice, Henry Pifield An indifferent private detective on the staff of Wilbraham Stafford’s International Investigation Bureau, he Another fictional employee of The Tilbury Detective pursued Alice Weston’s love, earned the soubriquet Agency, also in Sam the Sudden , chapter 19, who was ‘Bill the Bloodhound’ , and ended up as a theatrical still with the firm after it had become The J mascot, in ‘Bill the Bloodhound ’. Sheringham Adair investigation agency in Ice in the Bedroom , chapter 17. Schwed A fourth fictional employee of The J Sheringham Adair Yates, Drexdale investigation agency, in Ice in the Bedroom , chapter 17, A fictional detective, familiar to Bertie Wooster from named after PGW’s American publisher. the book The Masked Seven , in which he finds himself in a cellar with the trapdoor shut, with whose case Simmonds Bertie saw similarities in his own situation in Thank A fellow-employee alongside Henry Rice at Stafford’s. You, Jeeves , chapter 12. Simmons, Miss Susan Anon (1) An employee of Wragge’s, summoned by Rupert Baxter Appointed by Freddie Rooke to trace Jill in Jill the to guard Lady Constance’s necklace in Leave It to Reckless , chapter 13 (ii). Psmith . Anon (2) Stubbs, Cedric Employee of Wragge’s, taking a position as valet to Sir Late husband of Maudie Stubbs, he was the proprietor Thomas Blunt in A Gentleman of Leisure , chapter 18. of Digby’s Day and Night Detectives, during the course of duties for which he caught double pneumonia while Anon (3) standing outside in the rain. Another house detective of the Hotel Cosmopolis in Indiscretions of Archie , chapter 8. Stubbs, Maudie Widow of the late Cedric and now the agency’s eyes Anon (4) and ears, she is also Beach’s niece, and was summoned A fictional character who influenced Bertie Wooster’s to Blandings Castle in Pigs Have Wings to protect the behaviour in The Code of the Woosters , chapter 7. Page 2.