The Secret Special Branch Ledgers

[Chris]

I think you will find that any requests under the FOIA for these records/files go initially to the FOIA dept as New Scotland yard then they send them to Special Branch who will reply in the same format as they have before. Its like a revolving door.

Sometimes in the national archives where these files are listed there are dates when they are supposed to be reviewed by Special Branch. When making an enquiry they usually come back saying that there is no date planned for reviewing them.

Thanks for those comments.

Yes - according to the online catalogue the Freedom of Information request would go to the "public authority" (the Metropolitan Police Service). I've also noticed that dates for review are listed in the catalogue, and that they are often in the past ...

But I suppose there's some encouragement in the fact that more than a quarter of the files have been opened since Christy Campbell wrote.

[Tom_Wescott]

By way of introduction, Alex Butterworth's book, The World That Never Was, published by Bodley Head, 2010 is an impressive and extensive 482 page account of the underground workings of the Anarchists, Secret Agents, Special Branch Policemen, Politicians etc in the latter half of the LVP, much of which centered around little Whitechapel.

Thanks for the tip, Phil. I'm going to get this book.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Trevor Marriott]

On the subject of Special Branch records, does anyone have any further information on the records in the MEPO 38 series?

http://tinyurl.com/3xv2c9b

These are described as Special Branch Registered Files, with covering dates 1880-1997.

The subseries are as follows:
1-12 EXTREMISM
13-72 COMMUNISM
73-76 HUNGER MARCHES/UNEMPLOYMENT
77-90 STRIKES/TRADE UNIONS
91-109 FOREIGN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS
110-124 IRISH REPUBLICANISM
125-158 PROTECTION
159-163 NATURALISATION
164-168 ORGANISATIONS - GENERAL
169-180 ARMS & AMMUNITION/FOREIGN CRIMINALS
181-182 [extradition of Nkrumah/protection of the Duke of Windsor]

Christy Campbell, in Fenian Fire (2002), commented that all these records, including the basic descriptions of the files, were closed in perpetuity under section 3.4 of the 1958 Public Records Act.

However, the National Archives website notes that requests for access may be made under the Freedom of Information Act, and the catalogue now contains descriptions and dates for 48 of the 182 files. I assume these 48 are all now open to public access.

The earliest open file is dated 1880 - which obviously predates the forming of Special Branch - and is described as "Naturalisation enquiries: correspondence between the Secretary of State (Home Department) and New Scotland Yard (CID) on the question of conducting naturalisation cases". The next earliest is dated 1921. In a parliamentary answer in 2002, it was stated that the series then contained records "created for the most part up to 1936". I'm not sure how this relates to earlier claims that all the Special Branch files were pulped during the Second World War.

I think you will find that any requests under the FOIA for these records/files go initially to the FOIA dept as New Scotland yard then they send them to Special Branch who will reply in the same format as they have before. Its like a revolving door.

Sometimes in the national archives where these files are listed there are dates when they are supposed to be reviewed by Special Branch. When making an enquiry they usually come back saying that there is no date planned for reviewing them.

[Tom_Wescott]

Clutterbuck's thesis is available as a free download from the British Library's Ethos website.

The quote Simon previously quoted was in reference to Evans and Gainey's book on Tumblety. He also wrote:

"The proposition that there was a possible Irish suspect for these murders is not as incongruous as it seems. At least one book, "The Lodger" (Evans and Gainey, 1995) is based on a Home Office memorandum relating to this idea and there are more relevant entries in the Chief Constable's Register. It does not corroborate their theory but does enable an outline to be constructed of a intriguing story involving an extreme Irish nationalist who is suspected of being "Jack the Ripper", an alleged plot to assassinateth e Secretary for Ireland, Balfour, and the activities of a private detective agency. However, it is a digression from the thrust of this research and regretfully it cannot be pursued appropriately here."

Damn. If only there were a Ripper suspect who was a private detective with political ties.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Chris]

On the subject of Special Branch records, does anyone have any further information on the records in the MEPO 38 series?

http://tinyurl.com/3xv2c9b

These are described as Special Branch Registered Files, with covering dates 1880-1997.

The subseries are as follows:
1-12 EXTREMISM
13-72 COMMUNISM
73-76 HUNGER MARCHES/UNEMPLOYMENT
77-90 STRIKES/TRADE UNIONS
91-109 FOREIGN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS
110-124 IRISH REPUBLICANISM
125-158 PROTECTION
159-163 NATURALISATION
164-168 ORGANISATIONS - GENERAL
169-180 ARMS & AMMUNITION/FOREIGN CRIMINALS
181-182 [extradition of Nkrumah/protection of the Duke of Windsor]

Christy Campbell, in Fenian Fire (2002), commented that all these records, including the basic descriptions of the files, were closed in perpetuity under section 3.4 of the 1958 Public Records Act.

However, the National Archives website notes that requests for access may be made under the Freedom of Information Act, and the catalogue now contains descriptions and dates for 48 of the 182 files. I assume these 48 are all now open to public access.

The earliest open file is dated 1880 - which obviously predates the forming of Special Branch - and is described as "Naturalisation enquiries: correspondence between the Secretary of State (Home Department) and New Scotland Yard (CID) on the question of conducting naturalisation cases". The next earliest is dated 1921. In a parliamentary answer in 2002, it was stated that the series then contained records "created for the most part up to 1936". I'm not sure how this relates to earlier claims that all the Special Branch files were pulped during the Second World War.

[lynn cates]

also

Hello Phil. Splendid. Hopefully, I can add to the list my Yiddish translator (Arbeter Fraint) who has gone missing.

Cheers.
LC

[Phil Carter]

Hello Lynn,

Thank you kindly. Your offer is most welcome and I for one will be contacting you in the near future.

best wishes

Phil

[lynn cates]

anarchists

Hello Phil and Trevor. If you need any help with research on the anarchists, please let me know. I have many websites for this and both of Fishman's books, as well as Rocker's. I also have a wealth of material from the IISG in Amsterdam and some items coming from the Kate Sharpley library.

I can also direct you to many articles on the internecine strife obtaining amongst the various anarchist and socialist groups.

Cheers.
LC

[Phil Carter]

Thanks for that. (The reason I couldn't find any mention of it on the Information Commissioner's website is that there isn't any, apparently.)

So they were allowed to withold information on the ground of an exemption which they hadn't even invoked in the original hearing. Is that an indication that what's going on here is just institutional secrecy for its own sake?

Hello Chris,

You've nailed it, in one. The age of the documents argument was tried, and failed. Security argument? Failed. Danger through Health and Safety argument? Failed. Even exorbitant fees asked for. Failed. Everything and anything has been done to try and keep these things witheld from public viewing. All on top of countless excuses and lies over the years that they never existed, were destroyed, burnt, pulped, missing, stolen and a World War Two bomb hit them, etc etc etc.
You nailed it in one Chris.

best wishes

Phil

[Phil Carter]

Alex Butterworth

Hello all,

By way of introduction, Alex Butterworth's book, The World That Never Was, published by Bodley Head, 2010 is an impressive and extensive 482 page account of the underground workings of the Anarchists, Secret Agents, Special Branch Policemen, Politicians etc in the latter half of the LVP, much of which centered around little Whitechapel.

It tells of the plans, some foiled, some exposed, naming the people involved of various plots against Tsars, Empresses, Presidents, Queen Victoria, and Government ministers, inter-linking various countries all over Europe.

Feniansm, anarchism, radical Jews, revolution, counter espionage, the disparate and at times desparate attempts to overthrow, undermine and terrorise and spread fear amongst the community of various countries, with an empahsis on what happened in the sucluded world of Special Branch to counter these threats, and who were central in the machinations working against them..

The police chiefs and their agents spun their own web of intruige and plots, and with the help of the ledgers amongst other things, we are given a very valuable insight into Late Victorian undercover police employment.
London and Paris were hotbeds of International plotters of sorts, including the very much talked of Fenians. Mixed up amongst this, revolutionists had in their midst agents from the Special Branch at Scotland Yard, the French Surete and the Russian Ochrana loitering and interweaving into groups at street level attempting to reveal and uncover the various conspiracies being set up around them. The methods these undercover organizations used were highly secretive, and Butterworth's book reveals much to the general public on the men orchestrating the counter-espionage.

Monro, Littlechild, Anderson, Williamson, Melville, Sweeney and many others are all involved. The underground police and governments of Switzerland and Austria, France and Russia, are all linked. Rachovsky was, liked those named above, a central brick in the wall against activists, creating and setting up the London branch of Ochrana, and worked closely with the Special Branch, yet officially at least, keeping their distance.

The ledgers are of central importance to everything these men did. First Jenkinson, then Monro, and then Melville at the helm. Monro's "hot potato" is a very intelligent, knowledgable and realistic comment. It puts the fantasies of Anderson's 1910 comments into complete perspective.

I recommend this book to anyone who really wants to get to know the happenings and involvement of Special Branch at street level. The IWMEC, The Anarchists, The Revolutionaries, the Fenians, The Jewish uprisings, the FEAR that was created in and around Mr and Mrs Jones in that little area called Whitechapel is brought into view. No wonder the ordinary people were in complete and utter fear. People talk of "cockney spirit". Trying to romantacise that statement in retrospect will never really show what it really means to be born and brought up in and amongst this degredation, trepedation and chaos. And all the while, poor, dishevelled, outcast females were being slaughtered and hacked into pieces in their midst.

Alex Butterworth's account is an amazing book of real people, doing real things, all of which are true. It has been described as a Tour de Force. I can only add that it takes historical account onto another level, with hundreds of cross references, names, dates and times.

Those ledgers are of immense historical value to us all. The greatest crime would be if Trevor Marriot does not succeed in bringing them completely into the light of day. I wish him every success and all our complete support should be with him in his quest, for the time has come for openess and respect from the public authority that holds them to be shown to the historically minded everyday people they serve. We are very interested in our TRUE history, and the time has come for them to realise that we would respect that authority far more if they revealed the secrets of ANY documentation from 120 odd years ago, instead of hiding them away and telling lies as to their non-existance or destruction, as has been done on countless occasions to historian and researcher alike in the past. It is OUR history, and we have a right to know it, be we researcher, historian, ex-policeman, or especially, a relative of any victim. That is the way things are handled today, in 2010. It should apply to the happenings of 1888.

best wishes

Phil

[Chris]

Try this.

http://www.informationtribunal.gov.u...2030-03-09.pdf

Thanks for that. (The reason I couldn't find any mention of it on the Information Commissioner's website is that there isn't any, apparently.)

So they were allowed to withold information on the ground of an exemption which they hadn't even invoked in the original hearing. Is that an indication that what's going on here is just institutional secrecy for its own sake?

[Stephen Thomas]

Rest in Peace Hilda Murrell

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=hilda+murrell&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=UHcUTJ6xIZPw0gSHuZiECg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CD4QsAQwAw

[Stewart P Evans]

Nice to Hear

Not to detract from the topic of this thread, but Stewart I've never trusted much of what Anderson has written, nor have I ever believed that Aaron Kosminski was the Ripper.

That's nice to hear Scott, and encouraging, you do some great research.

[m_w_r]

That's very strange, because there seems to be no record of any such decision on the Information Commissioner's website.

Hi Chris,

Try this.

http://www.informationtribunal.gov.u...2030-03-09.pdf

The Tribunal requests the Appellant as a public authority to disclose to the requester, Mr Alex Butterworth, the information contained in the following documents or written materials, namely:
(1) Metropolitan Police Ledgers headed “Special Account”, volumes 1-3 (1888-1894, 1894-1901, 1901-1912);
(2) Chief Constable’s CID Register: “Special Branch” (1888-1892)
save that all proper names and/or family names relating to individual parties or other persons be redacted therefrom.

You'll notice that the Metropolitan Police Service launched the March 2009 appeal.

Regards,

Mark

[Chris]

On March 3oth March 2009 the tribunal made the new decision to redact all proper names. This was as a result of an appeal brought by another author Alex Butterworth who is also a retired special branch officer.

That's very strange, because there seems to be no record of any such decision on the Information Commissioner's website.