Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, (1840-1927)

PoliceCommissioner, MetropolitanPolice, 1886-1888.

From The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard

Educ. Cheltenham, Sandhurst and Woolwich. Lt, Royal Engineers, 1857. Served in Palestine and acrried out archaeological research on which he later based three books, 1867. CMG, 1877. Active service in the KaffirWar^?, 1877-8. Lt-Col and Chief Instructor, Army Engineering School, Chatham, 1880. KCMG after leading successful expedition in Egypt to find missing archaeological party, 1882. Sent to Khartoum with 2nd relief expedition for General CharlesGordon^?; then successfully put down disturbances in Bechuanaland, for which GCMG, 1884. Military commander, Suakim, 1885-6. MetropolitanPolice Commissioner, 1886-8. Returned to army following resignation, and played controversial part in the Battle of Spion Kop, 1900. Retired from the army, and devoted the latter years of his life to the BoyScout^? movement.

Warren was the most unlucky of all Commissioners. He was appointed to bring military discipline to public order and was welcomed by the press in that role -- but the same press damned him as soon as he did what had been asked of him. His regard for his men's welfare took an unglamorous form and his concern for uniformed policing did not go down well with a public that had become more interested in the CID. His constables and Sergeants found him aloof and only his Superintendents^? really appreciated him. He was unlucky in his AssistantCommissioners (Crime), his Receiver, and the HomeOffice officials who ultimately accepted his resignation. The MissCass^? case ruined the successful policing of QueenVictoria's Jubilee. The JackTheRipper case popped up when the press needed a stick to beat him; and finally his historical reputation came to rest with irresponsible writers on the Ripper who knew nothing of the history of ScotlandYard's press relations, and swallowed wholesale the claim that Warren proved the unsuitability of military men as police Commissioners. (In spite of which, his predecessors, except Sir Richard Mayne, his immediate successor and three later Commissioners were all soldiers.)

• Fido, Martin, and Keith Skinner. The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard. Rev. and updated ed. London: Virgin, 2000.

Historical Commentary

To give just the gist of the several pages Fido and Skinner devote to Warren, the basic point is that he was brought in upon the ignominious resignation of Sir EdmundHenderson^? in 1886 after the TrafalgarSquareDemonstrationAndRiot^? of that year. The press and the HomeOffice wanted a man in the job who could really handle these sorts of events and could quell the mob. Warren seemed an ideal choice, as you can see from his record. And given his successful work tracking Professor Palmer and his missing archaeologists, he seemed perfect.

He was a good LiberalParty^? member, and sympathetic to WilliamGladstone (as against his AssistantCommissioner (Crime), JamesMonro) on the issue of IrishHomeRule. He was not positive about the growing power and obsession of SpecialBranch. But when the Gladstone government fell and was replaced with another LordSalisbury government, Salisbury appointed HenryMatthews HomeSecretary, who was markedly opposed to many of Warren's positions. Furthermore Matthews ignored Warren's complaints about the over-strict financial control imposed by the PoliceReceiver, a common Commissioner's complaint. And there were other political difficulties as well, coming particularly from PermanentUnderSecretary^? GodfreyLushington^?, who apparently preferred the CityPolice to the Met.

Furthermore Warren assumed that as a military official appointed to take a stronger military role, he would have strong control; JamesMonro, however, relished the almost total independence he had inherited from HowardVincent. Thus there was organizational difficulty between the uniformed force and the CriminalInvestigationDepartment (and SpecialBranch).

For the problems that began to arise with the LordMayorsShow^? in November, see the MissCass^? case.

Next WilliamGladstone, now in the Opposition, averred that the police were not to be trusted when handling the IrishFenian issues, particularly with respect to interrogation. When socialist agitators in their turn began using this to raise specters of rank-and-file police grievances, the press began to rumble ominously. But things really went bad with BloodySunday^?, 1887, another riot in TrafalgarSquare^?. Here Warren did exactly what was asked. He imposed military discipline and mild force, and in some respects did well. He did better still in the later riots of 1888, but got no credit for it.

Then there was the fight about ChiefConstables^?. Warren wanted to create these extra officers, or rather revive their positions, and give one to each under-officered section of the Met. In particular, he wanted one for the CID. JamesMonro wanted MelvilleMacnaghten^?, and while Warren was at first supportive he then retracted this, because he heard that Macnaghten had been "the only man in India who has been beaten by Hindoos" (Warren's words). Monro and Warren fought about this stubbornly, and HenryMatthews waffled. When both Monro and Warren offered their resignations, Matthews accepted that of Monro, but then appointed him to a special post in the HomeOffice called "Head of the Detective Service" and put him in charge of the SpecialBranch despite his non-connection to the Met; RobertAnderson was appointed AssistantCommissioner (Crime) in his place, and AdolphusWilliamson was made ChiefConstable^? CID.

But if it seems that Warren got what he wanted, the difficulty is that Williamson and Anderson were encouraged to work with Monro secretly. And indeed, when the JackTheRipper case became a crisis, they did liaise with Monro to a considerable degree, putting Warren in an unenviable position.

During that whole affair, in fact, Warren was raked over coals not of his own making. He wanted to offer a reward, as did the press, but the HomeOffice would not let him do so -- and he was too loyal to tell them. The press denounced him for not having men on the ground, but he had Whitechapel^? chock-full of men. They claimed he didn't pay enough attention to the CID, but on the one hand they weren't talking to him so much, and on the other he was officer enough to leave the professionals to their work and not meddle. And the whole bloodhound thing: the press demanded bloodhounds, made fun of Warren when he got them, and attacked him for losing them -- which he had not done.

Eventually he made a crowning mistake: an angry rebuttal to this sort of unfair criticism. That was perhaps unwise, but when he carped that he did not have nearly the control he should have had over the MetropolitanPolice, the HomeOffice smacked his wrists for talking out of shop about policy. Although their annoyance was fair in its way, it was deliberately written to cause offence, and Warren took it. He offered his resignation, and the HomeOffice took it with thanks.

To add insult to injury, the announcement of the resignation came on November 9, the day of the MaryJaneKelly murder, and the press then (and bad ripperologists now) assumed the two were connected. They weren't. In fact, the senior officers were sorry to see him go, and said so movingly, but the press and the rank-and-file had increasingly been opposed to him. As the HomeOffice mandarin Evelyn Ruggles-Brise^? put it, "Warren was the finest man we had in Whitehall, but probably the worst appointment, because he must be independent, and the Commissioner of Police is held in very tight bonds by the HomeOffice."

In countless works of fiction, and works on JackTheRipper that claim not to be, Warren is portrayed as an incompetent and a fool. He was neither. He was stunningly unlucky, and was certainly not the most personable officer ScotlandYard has ever had. But a great deal of his later reputation is built on falsehood which Warren, apart from his one deadly outburst, was simply too loyal and "straight" to correct.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 29 Jan 2005