Mr Leroy and the case of the gold traffickers
Albert Leroy's varied detective career saw him track down a motorbike thief and a posse of gold traffickers...
Today, I'm going to give you a snapshot of one detective's career in first couple of decades of the 20th century, showing how he adapted to war and changing circumstances in order to maintain a career - in the midst of turmoil and family tragedy.
Albert Churchill Leroy was born in Battersea in February 1888, the son of a French father and English mother. His father, Appolinaire, was from the town of Rupéreux in north-central France and, resident in the UK by the mid 1870s, he worked consistently in the hospitality trade as a waiter.
Albert’s father was from Rupéreux; pictured is the town hall there (photo by Litlok)
The Leroys were a big family. Albert was the ninth of 13 children, but the three children immediately preceding him all died (two before their first birthday, and one age 5). The children were given French middle names initially, but as more and more children came along, their names became more and more English. By the time they got to Albert, his parents appeared to have run out of French names.
The Leroys had lived in Pimlico for years, but in around 1883, they relocated to Battersea, where their subsequent children - including Albert - were born. In the early years of the 20th century, Albert's parents would return to Westminster, before then moving to Lambeth, and finally, Croydon.
The Leroy boys were both literate and numerate thanks to the expansion of education by the end of the 19th century. Albert's older brother Dennis, the second eldest Leroy child, started work as a solicitor's clerk, and would later become an auctioneer and estate agent.
In 1908, aged 20, Albert married Alice Amy Allen in Battersea, and a year later, the couple had their only child, a daughter named Enid Ethel. They settled in Kensal Rise, and all looked secure. Albert was working as a clerk for a private detective agency when, in the autumn of 1911, Alice died, aged only 24. Albert was left as the single parent of a toddler daughter. In 1914, war was declared. That year, Albert remarried, to Hilda Sadler, and in 1915, their elder son William was born. Albert joined the Military Foot Police at the London District Labour Centre in Reading - he was a military detective, responsible for policing army personnel.
In April 1919, he gave evidence at Chichester regarding the theft of various items from Tangmere Aerodrome, and a later motorbike theft in Chichester. Albert had been on special duty in London on 13 April, a week after the thefts, and spotted the accused thief, John Whorlow, at the Queen Mary Club on Eaton Square. When he asked Whorlow for his name, the man said he was on leave from the army, but couldn't produce a pass. Because he couldn't prove his identity, he was detained, and searched. He was found to have a pistol on him, and said that if he had had ammunition on him, he would have shot Albert. Instead, he was arrested, admitted to Albert that he had committed various cheque frauds in addition to the Chichester thefts, and was committed for trial at Assizes.
Chancery Lane, where Arrow’s Detective Agency was based (photo by Eluveitie)
By 1920, Albert was a fully-fledged private detective, being employed by Arrow's Detective Agency. Arrow's was a long established agency, set up by retired CID Chief Inspector Charles Arrow, and based on Chancery Lane in London. Until 1913, it had been a partnership between Arrow and Henry Derby, but by Albert's time, the agency was run solely by Charles Arrow (there will be a future article about Arrow's Agency).
In January 1920, Albert was commissioned by Charles Arrow to work on a case of alleged gold trafficking. Seven individuals were suspected of this offence, including a barrister, two diamond merchants and a gold miner and his wife. Albert was charged with following the barrister, Harry Lewis, and he duly followed Lewis and his wife as they walked to a tea room near Holborn tube station.
Once there, George Painter, a contractor, took a bag from them and Albert then followed him to Hammersmith. Painter met up with diamond merchant Joseph Chamberlain, and the pair went to a fish shop for supper. The bag being carried by Painter was so heavy that he and Chamberlain had to take it in turns to lug it round with them. Eventually, Chamberlain took the train to Liverpool Street Station, and then another train to his home in Leyton, carrying the bag still. Albert tracked him all the way.
Bow Street Police Court, where the defendants in the gold trafficking case were tried in 1920
The men were arrested, and in March 1920, appeared at Bow Street Police Court, where they were duly convicted of six months in prison for their illegal movement of gold. This was under a clause in the Defence of the Realm Act forbidding the melting down or breaking up of gold and other transactions relating to it; the court heard that Sykes, under the direction of the other men, would regularly visit the Bank of England to change a wad of bank notes into gold coins. The intention was to then melt the coins down and resell the gold as bullion. The men appealed their conviction, and although this was upheld, in May, their punishment was reduced to a fine each. George Stevens' wife was not convicted.
There was a sad conclusion to this case. After being convicted, Joseph Chamberlain had been released on bail pending the appeal. One Sunday morning, as he and his wife, Edith, were preparing to go to church, he disappeared out into his back garden in Leyton. Edith became concerned at how long he had been gone, and went out to find him. She discovered her husband's body. Joseph had slit his throat with a razor. Mrs Chamberlain went running to a neighbour, and collapsed in their house, dying shortly afterwards from shock. If only Joseph Chamberlain had kept going a bit longer, he would have seen the threat of prison lift from him, and the fine replace it.
Albert continued working as a private detective throughout the 1920s and 1930s, listing himself as an employee of Arrow’s Detective Agency in the 1921 census. However, less is known of his later career. He died in Croydon in 1956.