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‘My ancestor was a celebrated police officer in the Met’ When Chris Payne started exploring his family tree, he had no idea he would stumble across a famous detective with a career-ending secret, says Claire Vaughan

t’s 8 November 1864 and Richard Harvey, the First World War. That was all I knew about Westminster City Archives as many of his a young shipwright’s apprentice, is out on him,” says Chris. “I was very busy at work and ancestors had lived in that part of London. I Plaistow Marshes in east London shooting didn’t have time to do anything with the Chris also investigated Charles’ experiences wildfowl with some friends. He becomes letters. I just thought: I’m going to keep these, in the First World War initially by searching separated from the group and at about 1.20pm they could be interesting. That was in 1990 – I for his service records on Ancestry.co.uk. From he’s following a narrow path through the reed finally got around to reading them in 2005/ there he hit The National Archives (TNA). bed near the river bank when he suddenly notices 2006.” It was a moving experience: “I still find “Unfortunately Charles’ service records didn’t a large object submerged among the stalks. myself touched, particularly by one or two of survive the Second World War bombing, Moving closer he discovers it’s a man’s body: the letters,” he admits. “I thought, this is I discovered, but I found out all about his “It was lying on its back, with the left hand on potentially a great story. I’ll save it for my battalion and wartime experiences at TNA.” the breast – there was only a pair of trousers and retirement it’ll keep my brain cells active!” So where does Chris’s detective ancestor a pair of Wellington boots on it, and his shirt So retirement came and Chris revisited fit into the puzzle? “Assembling the family was half off his body,” he later reports. The the letters. “I soon realised I’d have to do my tree, I saw that Charles’ grandfather was a chap corpse also has no head. He calls out in horror family history to work out the relationships called George Clarke. I didn’t really think to his companions to much about it until I fetch the police. So Chris’s ancestor was instrumental noticed in one of the began one of the most censuses that he’d been talked about murders in solving some of the most notorious an inspector in the of Victorian London. .” The Plaistow Marshes crimes of the late 19th century Chris Googled the name case would test the Metropolitan Police’s finest Charles mentions, who they were and so on. and rank and was astonished at what came up: – among them George Clarke, Chris Paynes’ I spent a year or so pulling together my tree “George had been tried for corruption at the great great grandfather. and found out actually how much I enjoyed Old Bailey. I haven’t looked back since!” Chris, a retired research scientist, has recently doing it. I think it helps being a trained It was a shock, of course, but, the scientist published his discoveries about his ancestor. scientist. Being presented with an incomplete in him reasoned, “I didn’t know whether he The Chieftain (the title refers to George’s data set, you have to go through logically and was innocent or guilty, and there must have nickname) is a gripping account of the Scotland you come across gaps and you have to think been more to the man than simply the trial”. Yard detective’s life and the crimes he was of ways of getting round them. I found the So he set out to see what else he could uncover instrumental in solving (among them some of whole exercise wonderfully stimulating.” about George. The internet was a rich source the most notorious of the late 19th century). of clues to this man’s life, including some of the But George himself was hiding a dark secret, Starting the journey... high-profile cases he’d worked on. “I couldn’t as Chris explains. His starting point for piecing together his believe my luck. I thought: this is wonderful Writing a book about his ancestors was family tree was a handwritten sheet of notes stuff.” Born in 1818 in Hertfordshire, George not what Chris originally had in mind for his from one of his father’s cousins, giving the had joined the Metropolitan Police in 1840, retirement. The idea was sown when he was names of Charles’ parents and siblings. Chris but it was when he joined a small team of sorting through his late father’s effects and used Ancestry.co.uk to find birth, marriage detectives at in 1862 that his came across a bundle of letters written by his and death records and locate his forebears on career really took off. grandfather, Charles Frederick Payne. “Charles census records, gradually building up an online Though familiar with scientific research,

died in the influenza pandemic at the end of tree. This was supplemented by visits to Chris had no experience of researching Cha n t Joel / UNP

34 Who Do You Think You Are? June 2012 reader story CHRIS PAYNE

George Clarke (1818-1891)

Henry S Payne Emily Bent (1851-1909) Clarke

Charles Frederick Payne (1883-1919)

Rupert Payne (1916-1990)

Chris Payne

Chris Payne, in front of offices once occupied by the fraudsters whose put his ancestor in the dock

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BAckground The detective branch The Metropolitan Police was established in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel but, within 13 years, the government had sanctioned the creation of a new species of inspector. Co- The Tichborne Trial, Chris outside Old Scotland directed by 1873, in which Chris’ Yard where his great great Sir Richard ancestor was pivotal grandfather worked Mayne and Sir Richard Mayne (1796-1868) Charles Rowan, policemen. “I contacted History by the “I would reread the newspaper accounts of eight men formed the first Detective Yard (www.historybytheyard.co.uk) online George’s cases and then go back and quiz the branch, operating out of an office in and they pointed me in the direction of the TNA catalogue with different search terms Whitehall Place, backing onto Scotland police pension files at TNA.” and come up with more and more detail. It Yard. Without the conspicuousness of a For a couple of years, TNA and the British probably took me three to four visits to TNA uniform, they had carte blanche to enter Library became like second homes for Chris. before I found some original documents where they pleased: less concerned with “Whenever I travelled to London for work, relating to George, but once I’d done that, the prevention of crime, they were there I would always squeeze in time at one of them. the research was sheer delight! to solve it. In addition, the two hugely useful digitised “By now I knew I wanted to write a book Encouraged by the admiration of writers newspaper databases, 19th Century British about George. Initially, I thought he would be like Dickens, men like Stephen Thornton Library Newspapers, and The Times digital a chapter in one about my grandfather, but as I and worked with local police archive, [both of which can often be accessed kept finding records, I realised there was more forces across the nation, arresting the most free at home if you have a public library than enough material for a whole book. I had sensational criminals of the mid-Victorian membership card] were of enormous value, to organise it somehow. I did this by assembling period, including the murderers Courvoisier, enabling me to undertake free text searching a chronology of his life on my computer”. the Mannings and . on my home computer.” Chris highly recommends this technique. From these pioneers the second- This allowed Chris to identify the A remarkable detective emerged from the generation detectives – including Richard investigations that George was likely to have newspaper clippings, police reports and other Tanner and ‘Dolly’ Williamson – learned been involved with between 1840-1878 primary sources. George had been central to how to disregard gossip, evaluate tips and (the period that he was working for the some of the most infamous cases of the period. produce evidence for trials. Forensics were Metropolitan Police). “I could then search Not only was he instrumental in solving the in their infancy, science could not yet spring TNA catalogues to see if any case files were Plaistow Marshes murder, he was also the to their aid and, by the 1860s, they were available, and the British Library catalogue arresting officer (in New York) of Franz Müller, under pressure. Delays, irresolution and to see if there were any relevant books on the killer of Thomas Briggs, the first man occasional failure meant that public some of the more major ones.” murdered on a British train. (His story was told admiration was tinged with distrust: they in Kate Colquhoun’s Mr Briggs’ Hat, see issue 48). were elite and expensive, but also fallible. Searching the case files The records also showed that, in 1870, Unobtrusive and doggedly determined, It all sounds so straightforward, but his initial George was sent ‘undercover’ by the Home the detectives were faced with a clamour breakthrough required a great deal of Office to France to obtain evidence about the for speedy resolutions. If they, like Cuff in persistence. “It took me a while at TNA to recruitment of Irishmen to fight for France Wilkie Collins’ , were to track down the first of George’s correspondence during the Franco-Prussian War. Meanwhile, be allowed to rifle through the private but once I’d learnt how to put the right search back on British soil, his investigations into business of the middle classes, then they terms into their catalogue it became much suspect witnesses during the trial of the must also prove their worth, make rapid easier. Most of the documents are not digitised, Tichborne Claimant (a fraudster who caused arrests and preserve the illusion that they there’s just their title, so if I was looking for a national sensation in the 1870s) was pivotal could keep society safe. details of a particular case, I could type in its in convicting the accused. name, see what came up and then go along to George was also the investigating officer in Kate Colquhoun is the author of the archives not knowing quite what I’d find. the Charles Bravo poisoning case, an unsolved Mr Briggs’ Hat: A Sensational Account In fact, some of the files had been lost, but for ‘suspicious death’, and eventually brought im age s of Britain’s First Railway Murder

most of the murder enquiries, they were all there. Henri de Tourville to justice for the murder gett y

36 Who Do You Think You Are? June 2012

reader story

Chris with a picture of his ancestor, George Clarke

A notice about Britain’s first railway murder. Chris’s ancestor was the arresting officer of his second wife (and the probable murder case reports and newspaper cuttings he could enquiry, resulting in the reorganisation of the of his mother-in-law). “This last case has been lay his hands on. “The case against George Detective Branch into the CID. After a stint widely misreported in several published involved perverting the course of justice – as a publican, George articles,” says Chris, “and my research (using essentially that he’d accepted bribes from a returned to detective work as Your story George’s reports of the investigation) has couple of notorious fraudsters who’d been a ‘private inquiry agent’ but thrown new light on the subject.” sent down. Three of his colleagues were never achieved the acclaim he Share your family story with us and initially arrested and then subsequently, as had previously enjoyed. He you could appear in Corruption scandal... the case developed, he was detained as well.” died at his home in January the magazine George was clearly at the top of his game, so Among the huge number of records 1891 at the age of 72. * Please write to the why did he end up in court in a case that was concerning the trial held at TNA, Chris So, was George – who was address on page 3 to end his career? From his internet searches, uncovered something that made him suspect described as “a very unusual or email Chris gleaned that Inspector George Clarke that things weren’t quite what they appeared. article” and “a man of about 8 claire.vaughan@ had been tried for corruption at the Old Bailey “There’s a very interesting letter written by as much shrewd common immediate.co.uk in 1877 (in the first major Metropolitan Police the attorney general/solicitor general at the sense as any man in London” corruption trial) and that he had been acquitted, suggesting that George should by one of his superiors at the end of the fraud unlike three of his colleagues, who were convicted be arrested, otherwise the case against the trial – guilty or not? “You’ll have to read the and sentenced to two years hard labour each. other three might fail. That’s essentially the book to find out,” chuckles Chris.

Most later commentators attributed George’s undercurrent behind it.” take it further acquittal largely to the skills of his barrister. Following his acquittal, George was  The Chieftain by Chris Payne Not content with this version, Chris reinstated, but now a ‘political liability’ within (The History Press, 2011) methodically researched the ‘Turf Fraud the Met, he was forced to retire a month later  Want to turn your family history into a book? Scandal’ for himself, consulting all the original on health grounds. The case itself triggered an Turn to our feature on page 24

Key sources The National records of other forces, London, then www. the Metropolitan Police’s enthusiasm and interest in Archives (TNA) try ARCHON (www. historybytheyard.co.uk own at www.met. the means of uncovering Staff records and case nationalarchives.gov. is a great starting point police.uk/history. information”. Chris is files for the Metropolitan uk/archon). Consult the for tracking down records also a member of the Police Force are just some research guide at www. about their career. It societies University of the Third of the police records you nationalarchives.gov.uk/ covers the policing of Family history societies Age and the Western can search for online at records/research-guides/ the capital, case studies can be a mine of Front Association. For TNA in the MEPO series. metropolitan-police.htm. of notable individuals, information. Chris’ more details on where Pension records are useful listings of recruits and philosophy is to ask to find local or family as they hold details that History by plenty of advice and links questions and talk to history societies, go include marital status, dates the Yard to ensure you can take people, and where better to The Federation of of service and next of kin. If you’ve got an ancestor your research further. to do it than somewhere Family History Societies For where to search for who pounded the beat in Another must-visit site is where there is “shared at www.ffhs.org.uk. ala my

Who Do You Think You Are? June 2012 37