Sergeant 44 James Byfield

[Monty]

Hi all,

Sergeant 44 James Byfield was the Station Sergeant at Bishopsgate Police Station. It was he who booked in a drunk Catherine Eddowes and it was he who also stated she was sober enough to be released.

Rob and I have managed to identify an image of him and we attach it here. We believe this to be the first identified photo of Byfield.

Many thanks to Stewart Evans for his valued opinion on this.

Neil & Rob

[lynn cates]

nice

Hello Neil. Lovely work!

Abberline next?

Cheers.
LC

[Monty]

Hello Neil. Lovely work!

Abberline next?

Cheers.
LC

There is another Lynn, gimme a mo !

Monty

[Steven Russell]

Nice one, Monty. I never knew that a station sergeant had four chevrons but just did some googling and it's true. Apparently these were replaced by three chevrons and a crown in 1921.

Best wishes,
Sreve.

[Archaic]

Kudos to the Dynamic Duo, Rob and Neil! Good work, guys.

Do you think Sergeant Byfield ever knew that the woman he released from jail was the one butchered later that night in Mitre Square? If so I feel very sorry for him.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Archaic, there's no doubt he knew, as he was questioned about it.

Great job, Monty! How come you chose to publish it here and not in Ripperologist as is your usual course?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[curious]

Sgt Byfield

Good job. Thanks for sharing. I've loved the reported exchange between him and Eddowes, but must confess, the Sgt. does not look like I expected him to -- however that might have been. Of course, he was being very "official" in his photo.

curious

[Scott Nelson]

Inspector Collard, who was 41 when the photograph was taken, is either sitting on Byfield's right, or Superintendent Foster's right.