Lighter Side of My Official Life, The

“None need take up Sir Robert Anderson’s book without anticipating much entertainment; none will put it down without regret that it is not longer” The Sketch

Sir Robert Anderson’s reminiscences of his official life, beginning in 1867, with his secret service work for the British government in connection with Ireland, and continuing, from 1888, with his tenure as head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Metropolitan Police in London. Anderson is a strong advocate of the British policing system.

The second of the “Whitechapel Murders” was committed the night before he took office as Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and these crimes dominated his early years in policing. In this book he expresses the view that the reaction to these murders was inordinate, given the victims were all prostitutes. He claims that although “Jack the Ripper” was not brought to justice, the police did know who the killer was, and that he was a Polish Jew.

First published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1910. This special edition is published by Lewisham Press, 2021. The Lighter Side of My Official Life is a very useful source for historians of crime, policing and intelligence in the United Kingdom.

Sir Robert Anderson was born in Dublin in 1841. He was a barrister, intelligence officer and police officer. He died in 1918 of the Spanish flu and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

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