From Constable To Commissioner: The Story of Sixty Years Most of Them Misspent

Sir Henry Smith was a Scottish police officer who served as Commissioner of the City of London Police from 1890 to 1901.

Smith’s recollections make clear that he was fascinated with crime and criminals from a young age. Following a military career, he sought employment in policing, firstly in Scotland and later in Newcastle. Then, in 1879 he joined the City of London Police. After six years he attained the rank of Chief Superintendent and in 1890 he became Commissioner.

Smith shares his professional insight into many notable crimes in this book. By far the most famous case he had intimate knowledge of was the “Ripper” murders. He asserts that there is “no man living who knows as much of those murders as I do” but does not claim to know the identity of the killer, saying “he completely beat me and every police officer in London; and I have no more idea now where he lived than I had twenty years ago.”

Most unusually, Smith is openly critical of the London Metropolitan Police in relation to police corruption. He shares his personal knowledge and experience of policing in the West End of London since the 1860s, and asserts that, at one time, “the whole C Division [of the Metropolitan Police] was corrupt to the very core” He questions how the recent 1908 Report of the Royal Commission upon the Duties of the Metropolitan Police failed to acknowledge the problem of police corruption.

First published by Chatto & Windus in 1910. This special edition is published by Lewisham Press, 2020. From Constable To Commissioner: The Story of Sixty Years Most of Them Misspent is a most interesting and unusual source for historians of policing and crime.

Sir Henry Smith was born in Penpont in 1835. He died in Edinburgh in 1921.

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