Inspector Stockley Retires

FAMOUS DETECTIVE OFFICER RETIRES.

CHIEF INSPECTOR STOCKLEY'S LIFE OF ADVENTURE.

TOUR WITH KING EDWARD.

Chief Detective-Inspector Stockley has this week retired from the Metropolitan Police after twenty-five years' service - a quarter of a century filled with exciting episodes and strange experiences not only in London, but in many places abroad.
Mr. Stockley first came to London as clerk to an East Indian merchant. Much of his spare time he devoted to reading about the great detectives of the day, and after six years of office life he joined the police.
Passing an examination for clerical duty, he was attached to the H division at Leman-street as assistant divisional clerk, and the "Jack the Ripper" murders gave him his opportunity. Under Superintendent (then Chief Inspector) Moore and ex Superintendent Swanson, he helped in the search for the murderer, and was practically the first officer to reach the house in Dorset-street on Lord Mayor's day, 1888, when the mutilated body of Mary Jane Kelly, the last of the "Ripper's" victims, was discovered.
Mr. Stockley then went to Scotland-yard, where he did good work in the convict supervision office which had just been organised to carry out the important duties thrown upon the police under the Prevention of Crimes Act, After eight years of that work, and a spell of nearly twelve months at Bow-street, he returned to Scotland Yard under Supt. Swanson.

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In 1899 he made a trip to Gottenberg, Sweden, for a man wanted in connection with serious frauds, and in September, 1900, had a trip to New York to bring back a well-known solicitor who had absconded with 250,000l.
The man wanted had plenty of money and influential friends, and it was not until the expiration of four months' extradition proceedings that Mr. Stockley was able to return to England with his prisoner.
The following year, when King Edward made his first official tour of Europe, Mr. Stockley was appointed to accompany Chief Inspector Melville, of the special branch. on the Royal Yacht. Visits were made to Lisbon, Cintra, Gibraltar, Malta, Syracuse, Naples, and Rome. From the latter place the overland route to Paris was taken, and then the Royal Yacht was joined again at Cherbourg.
The King of Italy presented Mr. Stockley with a gold order in commemoration of the King's visit, and King Edward not only at once gave his official sanction to Mr. Stockley wearing this, but on the journey from Cherbourg to Portsmouth, presented him with the silver medal of the Victorian Order.
Two months after his return Mr. Stockley arrested near London a man wanted for murder in India, and took him to Madras. His prisoner was an intelligent man, and on the six weeks' journey out no one except the captain had the slightest idea that it was a detective with his prisoner travelling on the Ovoca.

Stolen Jewels.

Hardly had Mr. Stockley returned when he was sent out to chase an absconding Welsh solicitor. It was an exciting hunt from London to Boulogne, across Europe, and then to America, where he ran down his man in New York.
In 1905 Mr. Stockley was placed in charge of the detectives of the "F" Division, and had hardly been installed at Paddington-green when Lady Val Prinsep's jewels, to the value of nearly 8,000l. were stolen from Holland Park-avenue. Mr. Stockley arrested some of the thieves and recovered 3,000l. worth of pearls, which had been hidden in an adjoining garden. Later he traced over 2,000l. worth of the stolen property to Zurich, went there and brought it safely back.
Promotion followed, and Mr. Stockley went to Bow-street as first-class detective-inspector. Whilst there, what appeared to be a trivial matter was brought to his attention. A poor woman complained of the loss of her child - a complaint that is heard daily at every station throughout the metropolis. With the intuition born of long experience Mr. Stockley saw something in it. Within a month he had not only found that the child had been recovered from the Thames at Erith and buried, but he had traced the man who had stolen the child and dropped it into the river from Waterloo Bridge. The body was exhumed on a Home office order, and Dr. Stevenson said the death was due to suffocation.
The man set up an ingenious defence, but he was convicted of murder.
The last big case Mr. Stockley had before he was promoted to his chief inspectorship was that of the murder of Esther Praegar in a lodging-house in Bloomsbury. The girl, a stranger to the neighbourhood, took a room one night, and next morning was found strangled. A coil of electric wire near the body was the only clue, and the murder remains a mystery to this day.
Mr. Stockley has joined Ex-Detective-Inspector Walsh in his private inquiry agency at John-street, Adelphi, and the business will be carried on as Walsh and Stockley.

Source: Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, March 19, 1911, Page 3

A FAMOUS DETECTIVE.
INSPECTOR STOCKLEY'S EVENTFUL CAREER.

An interesting and romantic personality in the Metropolitan Police Force, Chief-inspector James Stockley, of Scotland Yard, has retired from active service after five and twenty years' adventures in London and in many places abroad. Mr. Stockley comes of a good family, his father being a well-to-do yeoman in one of the home counties. He became a detective for the sheer love of the game and the romance of it. He received an excellent education; he was an omniverous reader, and he took special delight in following the fortunes of the greatest police hero of fiction in his day - the incomparable Lecoq.
"From my youngest days," he told a representative of the 'Morning Leader,' "it was my ambition to become a detective. But at the beginning of my career fate ruled otherwise. I was doomed to the unromantic drudgery of clerical life in the city for six years. Then I had had more than enough. I was strong and healthy and tall enough for a more manly business than that, so I walked out of the office one day and joined the police as an ordinary constable.
"My education proved useful, and I began my police life as a clerk in the superintendent's office at Leman-street, Whitechapel - unromantic and stolid enough, if you like. But here I was, and I was determined to stick to it!"
Fortune favors the adventurous, however. Young Stockley had not been long sitting on a high stool in the dingy neighborhood of Whitechapel, when the Whitechapel murders startled the world. Every capable policeman in the division was turned out on this grim business, and to his great joy Mr. Stockley, under the guidance of Chief-inspector Moore, took his place in the army of police haunting Whitechapel day and night, and donned his first disguise as a detective-constable.
In turn he was a loafer, a costermonger, a beggar, a milkman, a chimney sweep, and an itinerant musician, and though, of course, he did not catch Jack the Ripper, he must have been more than once very near him. He had the consolation of falling in most distinguished company, and he picked up a vast amount of experience which was of assistance to him later on.
From Whitechapel he was transferred to Old Scotland Yard, where he did good work in the Convicts' Supervision Office. Next he went to Bow-street, where he was promoted, and then, with Chief-inspector Melville, he was deputed to accompany King Edward on the first official European tour of his reign. He went to Portugal, Gibraltar, Naples, Rome, and then overland to Paris. For his services on this occasion King Edward personally decorated him with the silver medal of the Victorian Order.
An exciting four months in India followed in connection with the arrest of an Englishman for murder in one of the Southern Provinces; and in 1905 Mr. Stockley was promoted to the post of inspector in charge of the Paddington district, where - among other things - he coped with the perplexing problem of what was known as the Studio Murder, the victim being a young artist named Wakley.
The murder of Mr. Whiteley occurred soon after this, it will be remembered, but Mr. Stockley was by this time back (in a high position) at Bow-street.
Here the romance of crime again followed him, for no sooner was he thoroughly installed as chief inspector at the most famous and the most historic police station in the world, than the task of unravelling the mystery of the murder of Esther Prager at a lodging-house in Bloomsbury fell to his share. Esther Prager was found strangled, or suffocated, and though it may have been a sordid and "commonplace" murder (if murder can ever be termed commonplace), the chief mystery of it was the discovery of a coil of insulated electric wire near the body. This was the only clue, and to this day the mystery remains unsolved.
When Lady Prinsep's jewellery was stolen Mr. Stockley chased the thieves half across Europe before he discovered several thousand pounds' worth of the trinkets at Zurich.
Mr. Stockley has ever been known as a most zealous officer, a good friend, and an indefatigable worker. He was, perhaps, the handsomest man in the metropolitan police force. He never looked like a policeman. He dressed well, and was partial to kid gloves, but those kid gloves concealed a grip of iron, and when once they got hold of an evildoer by the scruff of his neck, there was no choice for him but "to go quietly."

Source: Barrier Miner, Monday 1 May 1911, page 7

Regarded as the handsomest and best-dressed man in the force, Chief Inspector Stockley, of Scotland Yard, who recently retired, was known to his intimates as "The Toff" or "Gentleman James." He began life as a clerk in a city office, but with his imagination fired by the stories of Sue Gaborian and Poe, decided to join the police after six years of office life. And he makes the interesting confession that life in the London police force is every bit as romantic as he imagined it in his early days.

Source: Clarence and Richmond Examiner, Thursday 6 July, 1911, page 4

PERSONAL GOSSIP.

Well-Known Detective's Retirement.

Chief Inspector Stockley, of Scotland Yard, who has just retired, after twenty-five years' service in the London police force, was the handsomest man in the force and the most mild-mannered detective that ever grabbed a miscreant by the neck, says a correspondent. To his friends he was known as "Gentleman James" and to his enemies as "The Toff." He was fond of wearing a silk hat every bit as shiny as Chief Superintendent Froest's, suede gloves, and a morning coat that Poole would have respected. His splendidly-rolled umbrella of choice silk would grace the umbrella-stand of the Athenaeum.

His First Venture in Detection.

He came of a good family, and the public school education he received helped him moderately to his future successes. As a boy he was never happier than when he was reading the highly-coloured romances of Eugene Sue, Emile Gaboriau, and Edgar Allan Poe. Fate made him a clerk in a City office, but after six years of it he revolted and joined the police. It was not at all romantic at first, as he was given a clerkship in the superintendent's office at Leman-street, Whitechapel. Then in 1888 the Whitechapel horrors began, and young Stockley made his first venture in detection.

Studio Murder Mystery.

At Paddington he investigated the mystery of the extraordinary "studio murder," the victim of which was a young artist. While at Bow-street he was chosen by Chief Inspector Melville to accompany him on King Edward's first official tour in Europe after his accession. He became Chief Inspector at Bow-street, and during his reign there he had charge of the perplexing mystery of the murder of Esther Prager, who was found strangled in bed.

An Unsolved Crime.

The chief mystery of this crime was the discovery of a coil of insulated electric wire near the body, and all manner of strange theories were set afloat concerning this. The mystery remains to this day. The murderer was never discovered, and the insulated coil is in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. Mr. Stockley says now that life in the London police force has been every whit as romantic as he imagined such a career to be when he sat on a high stool in a City office thirty years ago.

Source: The Shoreditch Observer, Hackney Express, Bethnal Green Chronicle and Finsbury, Gazette, March 25, 1911, page 6