Detecting on both sides of the sea

Formerly a detective with the Royal Irish Constabulary, in retirement, Edward Seddall set up as a Liverpool private eye...

Today, I'm looking at the life of a man who went from being a senior police detective in Ireland to private detective in England. This man was Edward Thomas Seddall.

Edward Seddall was born in 1858 in Valletta, Malta. His family had been on Malta for some time; his grandfather Thomas was a wine merchant there. Edward's father, Henry, had been chaplain of the Military Sanatorium at Malta and assistant chaplain of St Paul's Cathedral in Valetta. As a result of his family's residence there, in 1870, Henry Seddall wrote a history of Malta 'from the days of the Phoenicians to the present time'.  By this time, he was no longer in Malta but in Ireland, though, having moved there with his wife Anna Maria (nee Batty). Edward's younger siblings - Mary, Anna Maria, William Vernon and Frederick (who would die in infancy) - were all born in Eire. Henry became vicar of Dunany in County Louth, before moving south-west to Westmeath. (for more about the Seddall family, see here).

Valletta, Malta, birthplace of Edward Thomas Seddall in 1858 (image by Bellina 09)

Edward was brought up at Vastina Rectory in Castletown Geoghegan, Co Westmeath. His family was a successful one; his uncle was Dr John Vernon Seddall, a surgeon who had served in the Crimea and who died at the Cape of Good Hope in 1870. Both Edward and his brother William got a good education, and as adults, both would work in fields related to the law: William's career was as a Dublin-based solicitor, whilst Edward moved to Antrim in the north of Ireland, joining the Royal Irish Constabulary as a cadet in 1880, when he was 21. In March 1880, he was appointed a third-class district inspector, and after two promotions, in 1882 and 1889, he reached the rank of first-class district inspector. He worked largely in Belfast, as district inspector in charge of the East District, and as chief of the detective force.

RIC officers at an eviction in 1888. At this time, Edward Seddall was a second-class district inspector in the RIC.

In 1884, Edward married Alice Geoghegan, from Westmeath, and the couple had three daughters: Violet Evelyn in 1887, Rose Louise in 1888, and Margarita Gladys Maude - always known as Daisy - in 1891. The 1901 census shows the family living on Sandhurst Road in Cromac, Antrim, with Edward working as a district inspector in the RIC. The Seddalls were a mixed religion family: Edward was a protestant and Episcopal Church member, while his wife was Catholic. Their daughters were all brought up as Catholic.

On 1 March 1902, Edward Seddall announced his resignation from the RIC, and his last day was on 9 May. He was regarded as being 'universally popular', respected by both the public and his colleagues. He was only around 44 years old when he retired, and so, as was fairly common for retired police detectives, he moved into private detective work. However, despite having spent most of his life in Ireland, he did not set up a detective office there. Instead, he sailed across the Irish Sea to establish himself in Liverpool.

Liverpool was already home to several successful private detectives (and many others who were not so successful). It was a competitive place for a private detective. However, Seddall had over 20 years' experience in the RIC, including 13 years as head of the detective department in Belfast, and was confident that he would find enough business. He duly placed a series of press adverts in the Lancashire newspapers, highlighting his police experience, and offering references and testimonials. In 1902, he had an office on Cockspur Street, but by 1903, had moved a few minutes’ walk away to Lord Street. He was not the only private detective to be based there.

There is no evidence of cases that Edward Seddall worked on, and his press adverts only cover a period of around six months. I can't establish how long he worked as a private detective for, as he can't be found in the 1911 census for either England or Ireland. I do know that in 1911, his youngest daughter Daisy was staying with friends in London, and that his wife Alice was with Edward's mother and aunt in Dublin. Edward's brother William was similarly at home in Dublin with his family, but Edward was with neither part of his Irish family, but nor was he in Liverpool. His eldest daughter Violet got married this year, and was described as being the daughter of an RIC officer, not a private detective, although this would be expected as the former had far more cachet than the latter.

Edward may well have been abroad when the census was taken. The Seddalls travelled, and Edward himself had been born abroad - his family had their history on Malta, and his aunt Charlotte would, at various times, live on the Isle of Man, on Gibraltar and Bermuda, thanks to her husband’s job as a naval storekeeper. In addition, Violet, his daughter, would, in her 50s, emigrate to Brazil. There was an adventurous streak among the Seddalls, and so Edward may well have travelled. There is silence around him, however, until his death in Hammersmith in 1916, aged 57. He does not appear to have left a will.

In 1933, William Vernon Seddall died at his home on Merrion Road in the Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge. Although a successful solicitor, specialising in bankruptcies, his obituaries made clear that it was his older brother who was the successful sibling: he was remembered as 'a brother of Mr Edward Seddall, who for many years was Commissioner for Belfast in the RIC'.

Edward Seddall is somewhat of a mystery. He was certainly a successful police detective, but it's not clear whether the skills he learned there resulted in a successful subsequent career. Much of what he did after leaving the RIC is unknown: but he certainly made every attempt to establish himself as one of Liverpool's Edwardian private detectives.