Melville Macnaghten

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Sir Melville Macnaghten, around 1900

Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten CBE CB ( June 16, 1853 - May 12, 1921 in Queen Anne's Mansions, Westminster ) was an assistant commissioner in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Metropolitan Police Service, a senior police officer in the service of New Scotland Yard .

Life

Melville Macnaghten was the youngest of fifteen children of the last chairman of the British East India Company , Elliot Macnaghten. He studied at the renowned Eton College in the English county of Berkshire . After graduation in 1872, he returned to British India to work as an overseer on the family's tea plantation in Bengal . In 1881 he was seriously injured by Indian farm workers during an uprising. Through this he met James Monro (1838-1920), who at the time was District Judge and Inspector General of the Police in Bombay .

On October 3, 1878, he married Dora Emily Sanderson (1860-1929), a daughter of the Reverend Robert Edward Sanderson, Canon of Chichester , and his wife Dorinthea Phelps Oldham. The marriage, which was reported to be harmonious, had four children, including Charles Melville Macnaghten (1879–1931), Lieutenant Colonel in Australia , and Christabel Mary (1890–1974), who in 1910 was Sir Henry Duncan McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway, married.

Sir Melville Macnaghten, Vanity Fair caricature , 1908

In 1887 Macnaghten returned to England. Here he was offered a position as assistant to the chief constable in the Metropolitan Police by James Monro. However, this was prevented by Charles Warren (1840-1927), the chief of the London police. Warren's rejection led to Monro's resignation - he was succeeded by Henry Metthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff (1826–1913). Since Warren also as a liberal in conflict with the Ministry of the Interior ( Home Office ) under the Conservative ( Tory stand) Henry Matthews, resulting in constant intrigues and disagreements in his office, he took on 9 November 1888 his hat and retired from the police force from . In 1889 Macnaghten was appointed assistant to the police chief and the following year chief constable .

Although Macnaghten was not directly involved in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders, he had an active interest in the case. As Chief Constable, he had access to police records on the case; as a result of his own investigations, he wrote a confidential report in 1894. However, these records were not publicly available and did not become known until 1959. The notes reflected Macnaghten's views, which were not necessarily shared by investigating officers (e.g. Inspector Frederick Abberline ). In the report on the List of Recognized Five ("Canonical Five") he named three possible suspects: the lawyer Montague John Druitt, the Polish Jew Aaron Kosminski and the Russian doctor and former convict Michael Ostrog.

Macnaghten was also involved in solving other famous criminal cases in the history of the Metropolitan Police, including the case of Dr. Hawley Crippen and that of the brother couple Alfred and Albert Ernest Stratton ( The Mask-Murders ). The Strattons were convicted of murder on the basis of fingerprints , which were first used as a means of identification .

In 1903 Macnaghten was promoted to Assistant Commissioner. Eleven years later he published his memoir Days Of My Years and in the last ten years of his life he was translating the Ars Poetica of the Roman poet Horace (65 BC-8 BC) into English .

Awards

literature

  • Robin Odell: Ripperology: A Study of the World's First Serial Killer and a Literary Phenomenon , Kent St Univ Pr (2006) ISBN 0-8733-8861-5
  • Val Horsler: Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper , The National Archives (2007) ISBN 9781905615148

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography - Charles Melville Macnaghten
  2. ↑ Christabel Mary Melville Macnaghten on thepeerage.com , accessed September 13, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Macnaghten, Melville
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macnaghten, Melville Leslie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Police Commissioner
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1853
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1921
Place of death Queen Anne's Mansions, Westminster