The mysterious Mr Grimwade
Without his appearances in court, there would be a large gap in our knowledge of what this Nottingham private detective did
Image from the Wellcome Collection (public domain)
Alexander Grimwade was something of a conundrum - a mystery in many ways. He was a man displaced from his family, who settled miles away from home. He never married. He left little behind when he died. Perhaps, in this sense, he was a perfect private detective, for he lived in the shadows. Luckily for me, his appearances in court in the 1880s help shed a bit of light on his work and private lives.
His origins are certainly known: he was born in Beccles, Suffolk, in early 1849, and baptised there a year later. He was the son of William Grimwade, a man of several careers. William was a jeweller, then a bookseller and stationer, then a baker, and then a stationer again. He was an older father; he had only married in 1837, when he was in his 40s, although his wife, Sarah Lott, was a good decade younger. The couple had four children, of whom Alexander was the youngest.
The family was an old Suffolk one - the name Grimwade was fairly common there. Sarah Grimwade's family, the Lotts, were from Elmsett, north-west of Ipswich, but had relocated to nearby Somersham by the time Sarah was born. Her siblings all lived in Suffolk; her brother William ran a pub in Hintlesham until his death, when his widow Susannah took over the business, alongside his farming interests. William Grimwade was from Whatfield, a village only a few miles from the Lott family, but after his marriage, he and Sarah settled in Beccles. This market town was some distance from where they had grown up, nearer the border with Norfolk.
William Grimwade was clearly an educated man, and a successful business owner. He ran a shop for many years in Beccles' New Market, employing apprentices and servants. His eldest son, William Lott Grimwade, started his own career as a solicitor's clerk, eventually working in London as an accountant. His second brother, George John Grimwade, worked as a shorthand writer, like his older brother, settling in London. His only sister, Sarah, never married and spent her life dependent on male family members: she worked as a stationer's assistant for her father, as an assistant at her aunt's pub, and then, unemployed, lived with her brother George in London.
As for Alexander, not much is known about his career, but by 1871, he had - like his brothers - relocated to London. There, he took lodgings at a house on College Street (probably Royal College Street, near where his brothers lived), and got a job as a solicitor's clerk. This was perhaps the most common starting point in the career of those who would later become private detectives in early 20th century England.
Unfortunately, though, Alexander is missing from both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. This may be because of issues in recording his name - Grimwade being mispelled frequently in official records, including as Grimwood and Grimmer - or it could be because he was working abroad, although this feels unlikely.
We know why Alexander became a private detective. He worked for many years as a solicitor's clerk, and would have continued doing so, but he sustained an injury to his hand which made it difficult to carry out his clerking duties. As a result, in the early 1880s, Alexander established himself as a private detective in Nottingham, where he would spend the rest of his life.
Throughout this decade, he appeared in London and Nottingham courts both as a plaintiff and a defendant in various cases. In March 1883, he appeared at the Nottingham Borough Police Court, together with another man named Henry Butler, accused of obtaining money by false pretences, with intent to defraud. They had allegedly taken £2 15s from a woman named Diana Fowkes, which was legally the property of her husband James. Since the case was brought, James Fowkes had suddenly decided that he no longer wanted the case to proceed, and the court was to decide whether they were happy for it to be dismissed.
There were obviously concerns that one of the defendants had put pressure on Fowkes, but 'the defendant Grimwade said he was no party to the case being withdrawn'. Luckily for him, however, the case was dismissed. It is likely that Alexander had been commissioned to work on a case, and paid a sum of money to do so, before Diana and James Fowkes had changed their mind about employing him. When he had not given the money back, they tried to take him to court - before realising, perhaps, that they did not want any personal information aired in court.
In 1884, he was accused of obtaining money by false pretences. He had been commissioned by a Nottingham bookseller to collect some debts on his behalf. Grimwade had duly gone to a solicitor's clerk who, the bookseller said, owed him money. Grimwade extracted two sums - one of three shillings, and the other of five - before the solicitor's clerk prosecuted him. He was brought before the magistrates, and remanded. Newspapers learned of the affair, and they always enjoyed a story that made private detectives look unethical, even criminal. Reynolds's Newspaper, however, went a step too far with their coverage. They reported that there were a number of other charges against Grimwade, which was not true. There was only one charge, and at the second hearing of the case, it was dismissed.
In 1886, Grimwade sued the owners of Reynolds's Newspaper for libel as a result of their story. The proprietors argued that they had simply copied a story from another London newspaper, that it was only a paragraph, and that it was 'inserted without malice or negligence as a report of proceedings in a court of justice, and was therefore privileged'. However, they had already had to place an apology in Grimwade's local newspaper - for his career would have been negatively impacted by their story, and most of his work was in Nottingham. The story had also been repeated in regional newspapers, and at least one had headed its story 'Another private detective in trouble'. They were found guilty of libel, and Grimwade was awarded £45 damages.
A final appearance in court was made in 1894. This was in Nottingham again, and Alexander was the plaintiff. This time, he accused two women of assaulting him and his female housekeeper, Mrs Alice Brinkworth. All the parties lived in Park Street, Lenton - Grimwade and his housekeeper at number 10, and the accused women - Kate Maloney and Elizabeth Broughton - at number 1. The women were accused of wilfully damaging 12 panes of glass - presumably Grimwade's windows. In turn, the women accused Grimwade and Alice Brinkworth of assaulting Kate, and Grimwade of damaging five panes of glass at 1 Park Street, the house being owned by a John Reavil.
Grimwade stated that on the night in question, he and Alice Brinkworth had been having a glass of whiskey with their next door neighbours, Mr and Mrs Daniels, who had come round earlier that evening. He insisted they were all sober. Kate Maloney suddenly burst in, accusing Grimwade of having stolen £20 from her. She asked for a drink; Grimwade refused, telling her she had previously stolen things from his house. Alice, however, gave her a drink, and when John Reavil followed her in, he was also given a drink. Mr and Mrs Daniels made their excuses and left. When Kate too went to leave, Grimwade saw some candles which he had bought earlier that day hidden in her apron. When he called her out, an argument broke out, which ended in Kate Maloney threatening to stab the private detective, and Lizzie Broughton coming in, picking up a knife, and stabbing him in the chest. Maloney told her friend to "cut his hand off", and Alexander received several cuts to the knife.
He left to go to the police station, and when he returned, saw Kate chopping the windows of his house, smashing the glass. He admitted that he had assaulted her in order to get a poker out of her hands. The magistrates clearly saw this as an argument between drunken neighbours, and felt that both Grimwade and Kate Maloney were equally to blame. They fined both of them 30 shillings. This seems a bit unfair given that Grimwade was left covered in blood after the affair, with several cuts that were deemed to be the result of Kate's attack rather than from the smashed window glass.
Things appear to have been quieter for Alexander after this. He was still working as a private detective in 1911, and continued to live in Nottingham until his death there in 1915.