Trying to be a detective

A short post about a shortlived private eye

A very short post today about a detective I know pretty much nothing about - so if you have any clues, do let me know!

We’re in East Sussex, where, for a short duration, a private detective plied his trade. This was a man who established an agency named Bell & Co - although given how unsuccessful it appears to be, was likely to have been a sole individual trying to give himself a veneer of success by adding ‘and company’ to his name.

Bell & Co gave its address as 19 Arcade, Grove Road, Eastbourne, and only advertised in the press between late December 1905 and March 1906. Given that it is likely to have started advertising when it was established, and stopped when the business failed, it was only operational for three months.

I don’t know who Bell was - the censuses for Eastbourne do not provide me with details of an individual who may have briefly been a detective. There is nobody on Grove Road in 1901 or 1911 with the name of Bell.

Grove Road in Eastbourne: the address given by ‘Bell & Co’ (image by Theolimeister, used under creative commons)

Bell only advertised in selected newspapers in the north-west of England, and in Surrey, as far as I can see. The focus on these two areas may mean he was originally from one of these regions - but it may also simply have been because he thought he could get good business in these places (of course, he may have advertised in publications that haven’t been fully digitised, and hence I can’t locate them). His three-month existence, however, suggests that despite the money spent on newspaper adverts, he failed to compete with others in his field of work; perhaps he set up on a whim, thinking it would be a more fun way to earn a living than his previous one. As with many other individuals at this time, however, making a living as a private detective was far harder than many thought.