"Nothing's impossible": Advertising Reid's Enquiry Agency
How did Edmund Reid - known for his involvement in the Whitechapel Murders - market his shortlived detective agency?
Edmund Reid near his home in Kent
Reid’s was a one-man agency near Covent Garden, operated by Edmund Reid. Reid had an advantage over many private detectives as he had been very well-known as a police detective: he had been part of H Division in Whitechapel during the time of the Whitechapel murders, and would continue to be asked questions about Jack the Ripper nearly 30 years after the series of murders. His agency was relatively new - Reid had retired from the Met in 1896, and only established himself as a private detective following the death of his first wife in 1900, probably only in November 1903.[1]
Morning Post, 28 January 1904 (via British Newspaper Archive)
He therefore needed to promote the agency, but Reid kept his adverts to the point, focusing on his work in divorce cases In one issue of both the Evening Standard and the Morning Post in January 1904, he had paid for two adverts, each different to the other, but both focusing on divorce. These were in different styles, the first stating that the agency could provide ‘accurate and undeniable evidence’ for use in divorce petitions, and could watch individuals – with a brief mention at the end of the non-divorce related work it also provided. The second was more intimate and direct – ‘Do you contemplate divorce, or are attempts being made to divorce you? If so, consult Mr Reid.’ Both, however, were hoping to reach the same end – to get clients who wanted divorce evidence assembling.
Another set of adverts, in the Evening Standard of 4 December 1903, had again gone for different statements in each; the first stressed its ability to work on divorce and blackmail cases ('all evidence accurate and undeniable'), and was targeted at ordinary individuals, whereas the second was aimed at solicitors, asking them to let Reid's agency act on their behalf ('agents in the highest circles. Nothing impossible.'). Most detectives stressed their ability to obtain evidence, but Reid was unusual in claiming that nothing was impossible - a very confident statement, but presumably one he didn't expect to be tested on too much.
Morning Post, 4 March 1904 (via British Newspaper Archive)
Reid also tried a different approach in his advertising in other papers from the first half of 1904. In these adverts, he put his full name at the start, stressing his credentials as a former detective inspector, which former police detectives often did (although his addition of 'pensioned' was more unusual). Presumably, given his involvement in the investigation into the Whitechapel murders, he knew that readers would recognise his name, and trust him. He also added praise for himself from another paper - private detectives would often do so if they could; these testimonials were not always real, but again, given Reid’s experience in the police, his were more likely to be true than others I’ve come across.
Evening Standard, 28 July 1904 (via British Newspaper Archive)
Edmund got round any doubt that might be caused by these effusive comments by later mixing the undated testimonials from newspapers with those from individuals, such as this example from the Evening Standard in July 1904, where the barrister Sir Charles Gill is named giving a glowing description of Reid as an 'honourable man' - but not so glowing as the Weekly Despatch and the News of the World, both of which apparently saw him as one of the most remarkable men of the century... even though he was advertising only four years into the new century.
Edmund Reid was born in Canterbury in 1846, and an account of his life can be found here. He retired from the Met in 1896, aged 50, and settled in Hampton-on-Sea, near Herne Bay in Kent, where he named his home 'Reid's Ranch', and started a long spell of regular letter writing to the local paper about a variety of issues. In August 1900, he was widowed, and Reid himself died in Kent in 1917, aged 71.
The 1901 census, showing Edmund Reid simply as ‘retired police officer’ (TNA/TheGenealogist)
His press adverts for Reid's Enquiry Agency indicate that the agency may only have operated for a couple of years, although it would be more logical that he started out as a detective on his retirement from the police in 1896, but perhaps on a more low-key basis. His office was at 9 Southampton Row, in an area of London that had long been a centre for private detectives. However, perhaps he eventually found it too difficult to combine his busy and varied life in Herne Bay with work in the capital. By 1905, certainly, references to him in the press were more to do with his chairmanship of the Whitstable Quoit Club than as a private detective.
For more on Reid, his involvement in the Whitechapel Murders, and the 2018 campaign to get him a headstone following his burial in a pauper’s grave, see this article at KentOnline.
This is so interesting. I was intrigued by the advertising techniques in this part of the 19th century too.