my police whistle

[bellericky]

hi i was given this when my grandfather died about 1970, by my grandmother who said "it belonged to grandads father who was in charge of jack the ripper murders". This gets a little complicated,my surname is moore my mothers maiden name anderson, when at grandads funeral i said "why has grandads head stone got Moore Anderson on it" my mother said" he is a moore as well my grandads first name was Tom Thomas orTommy. The whistle is Metroplitain Police NO:38987 Any detectives out theer?........

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Bellericky

There's probably loads of people here who, by asking you a few questions, could give you an answer easily. Alan Sharp (though he rarely posts on this site these days) is the world's #1 man for Anderson material.

Verbal provenances are often almost impossible to substantiate; I have some things in my own collection that may or may not have historical significance (such as half a silver spirit flask inscribed to 'J Berry' which I bought from a seller who said there was a family history of it having belonged to 'a hangman', or a police whistle - yep, me too - that was bought with a tale that it had been given the the ancestors of the seller by a serving policeman who had been lodged with his forebears in Whitechapel after being drafted in from another Division during the Ripper murders).

It would interest a lot of people to find out that we had one of Sir Robert's family here. Such things happen occasionally.

PHILIP

[Monty]

Bellericky,

Sorry but I found it hard to follow your post.

As Philip states, theres a Sir Robert Anderson who became Assistant Commissioner at The Met in August 88, just as the murders were getting into full swing. However, and I may be wroing on this, he wouldnt have been issued witha whistle as he never was a beat PC, or occupied any of the lower ranks.

However, we do have a Chief Inspector Henry (not Tom) Moore who joined the Met as a lowly Constable in 1869. And he would have had a whistle. By 1888 he had risen to the upper reaches of Scotland yard via CID. That said, he wasnt a big player in the investigation though he certainly did his bit.

Im not sure if this helps you.

Monty

[Christine]

I believe that Thomas Moore Anderson would be the child of this police officer with a whistle, if I read the OP correctly. Other than that, I have no ideas.

Additional info:

Ah, here we are. Robert Anderson married Agnes Alexandrina Moore in 1873. Robert Anderson's memoirs are here, if you want to look through them and see if there's anything pertinent, but my brief perusal found nothing about a son named Thomas.

And yet more:

There is also a memoir by Robert Anderson's son, Arthur Posonby Moore-Anderson, which states that Sir Robert and Lady Agnes had four sons and a daughter. That would make the memoirist the OP's great uncle. Again, I failed to find the names of the children, other than Arthur himself.