Room 13 Miller's Court

[Magpie]

That's fascinating, Stewart. Thanks for sharing!

[Stewart P Evans]

June 1993

Eric had not mentioned the Kelly material again so in June 1993 I gave him a gentle reminder -

[Stewart P Evans]

Unwell

Eric told me that he was unwell at this time and did not mention the material. In a card dated 23 July 1993 he gave me some hope that I might be able to go and look through his collection for the Kelly material -

[Stewart P Evans]

Some Success

There was a small success at this time as Eric located another item from the George R Sims collection. It was the police colour facsimile of the 'saucy Jacky' postcard that had obviously been given to Sims by his friend Macnaghten. Eric sold it to me and it arrived in the below envelope (Eric sadly died many years ago and his family does not live in Sheen Road anymore) -

[Stewart P Evans]

August 1993

In August 1993 I received a letter from Eric which indicated that he was still bearing the Kelly photographs in mind -



Unfortunately the result was negative, Toby had no knowledge and Eric said, "Leave it still to me."

[Stewart P Evans]

January 1994

During these months Eric was dogged by ill-health and I was loath to pester him. In January 1994 Eric finally reached the conclusion that the Miller's Court material must have been sold -

[Stewart P Evans]

May 1994

On 17 May 1994 Eric wrote to me after completing further sorting of his collection, nothing more relating to Jack the Ripper had been found -

[Stewart P Evans]

June 1994

On 9 June 1994 I wrote to Eric mentioning Ripper material - and a book writing project that I had commenced -

[Stewart P Evans]

November 1994

By 22 November 1994 I was deeply immersed in writing The Lodger and I dropped a line to Eric with a hopeful mention of the Kelly material -

[Stewart P Evans]

Publication

Fortunately Eric lived to see the publication of my book and to read it, this from September 1995 -

[Stewart P Evans]

Nearly Lost

After Eric had read my book he wrote and told me how the Littlechild letter had nearly been lost -

[Stewart P Evans]

Eric Barton 1909-1997

Eric Barton died in London on 21 May 1997, I have much to thank him for and he will be fondly remembered by many. My friend Timothy d'Arch Smith wrote his obituary for The Independent -

[Stewart P Evans]

On Record

I felt that it was time that this information went on record and it exemplifies how new material may be found. And those Miller's Court and Mary Kelly photographs are somewhere 'out there'.

[Mike Covell]

It is hard to imagine just how big Mr. Barton's collection must have been and just what treasures were hidden within.

I spent some time recently going through documents that were left behind in the building were Robert D'Onston Stephenson's Cousin Joseph Dawber was a practising solicitor.

Nothing of intrest was found but they have been passed to a gentleman who is cataloguing and digitising everything for future generations.

[Stewart P Evans]

Very Interesting

Very interesting Mike. An important part of hunting out this material is recognising what you are looking at. Eric had no idea who Littlechild was, nor the importance of the letter when he sold it to me. In part of his interview for the documentary, that was edited out for the final version, he was asked if he had realised. "Of course not!" he declared, "If I had Mr. Evans would have had to pay a million pounds for it." Eric really was a great character.

For my part, when I received the Littlechild letter, with other letters, from Eric in a Jiffy bag I immediately realised who Littlechild was as I already had his memoirs, The Reminiscences of Chief Inspector Littlechild, and I realised its significance. The other letters had been written to Sims as a result of an article 'My Criminal Museum' in Lloyd's Weekly News of September 22, 1907, and Eric had assumed it was merely another reader's letter, albeit of a later date.

The hunt goes on...