The Secrets of the Special Reports

[David Orsam]

One further observation the "time" seems to be written in a stamp, I have no idea what the stamp says, does anyone else?

From the few characters on the stamp that can be made out, and from other date stamps in the file, I believe that the stamp probably says:

METROPOLITAN POLICE

31 AUG 1888

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

[Dr. John Watson]

12:30 PM

Mike

That's it exactly. 12:30 PM. Compare the questioned number with the "3" written on line above it. They're written the same, except that the short horizontal line that forms the top of the questioned number is either missing (having been written in haste) or now too faint to see.

John

[The Good Michael]

12:30 PM

Mike

[GUT]

One further observation the "time" seems to be written in a stamp, I have no idea what the stamp says, does anyone else?

[GUT]

If they are the same person and I suspect they are that wrote what we take to be a time and the "327" then the time post-dates 31 Aug.

I was also interested that it seems to have been forwarded pursuant to a directive of February 1888.

[Wickerman]

Look at it this way.
That portion of text already provides us with a 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9.
So we are left with 2,4,6,0.

Which of those four above does it look most like?

[GUT]

The number 2 (in 327) is very similar.

But the 7's are nothing alike.

However are they written by the same person?

[Wickerman]

The number 2 (in 327) is very similar.

[Rosella]

Thanks David, that does make it clearer. Which makes it even worse in a way, because I would swear that the last two letters are a pm, and I still do feel that the number before it is a 2.

[David Orsam]

Would the police sometimes, when catching up with their paperwork, just put the time a search or an interview was completed rather than the time the actual report was finished?

Hi Rosella - you probably need to see the full context. The time has been written on the cover sheet (which would be the reverse side of the report) and is inside the received date stamp. So it would appear to be the time the report was received by the Executive Branch at Whitehall. The below makes it all clearer:

[Rosella]

It looks as if this was quickly scribbled. The last letters are definitely a pm, in my opinion, and the number is a twelve with a very stubby tail. What the letters in between are, heaven knows, it looks like a ho!

Would the police sometimes, when catching up with their paperwork, just put the time a search or an interview was completed rather than the time the actual report was finished?

[Pcdunn]

Here's the image, from the microfilm, so you can have a go at deciphering it yourself:

Thank you! Very odd. Looks like a "17", but the following part could be either "hr" or "50"-- hard to tell with the slash mark going over some of the writing, after which appears the "pm"... Interesting!

Note: It could be a "12", but the tail is very short.

This is why librarians and archivists sometimes transcribe old handwriting as "illegible" in documents!

[David Orsam]

Here's the image, from the microfilm, so you can have a go at deciphering it yourself:

[Pcdunn]

Oh, right. Well, it was a long shot...

[David Orsam]

Wouldn't the "pm" be redundant though if you write "17:50"? I mean, isn't the whole point of the 24 hour clock so that you know that 17:50 is 5:50 in the afternoon without needing to say so?