Sir Robert Anderson (1841-1918)

Influential AssistantCommissioner, CriminalInvestigationDepartment (CID). Ran the brief-lived SecretService roughly 1868-86, depending on how that office be defined.

K.R.M. Short, The Dynamite War

Barrister, educated Trinity College, Dublin, B.A. and MiddleTemple^? 1862, LL.D. 1875. Law Officer, DublinCastle; transferred to London, Irish Office at time of Clerkenwell Explosion 1868^?. Later Secretary to Prison Board, HomeOffice while continuing to coordinate work against the IrishFenians with DublinCastle. Assistant Commissioner at ScotlandYard, CriminalInvestigationDepartment (CID), 1888-1901; KCB 1901. Prolific writer on religious subjects in addition to crime and Ireland.

• Short, K.R.M. “Biographical Notes.” The Dynamite War: Irish-American Bombers in Victorian Britain. 261-66. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979.

Martin Fido and Keith Skinner, The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard

AssistantCommissioner (Crime), 1888-1901.

B. Dublin, son of Crown Solicitor and younger brother of Vice-Regal Attorney-General. Educ. Trinity College, Dublin. Called to the bar, King’s Inn, Dublin, 1863. Reviewed Fenian activities for Vice-Regal Government, and, 1876, transferred to London HomeOffice as adviser on Fenian matters. Controlled spies infiltrating or reporting on Fenian activities, 1876-86. Secretary to the Prison Commissioners, 1887-8, then AssistantCommissioner, retiring with knighthood. Wrote 23 books on theology and two on police and criminal affairs, On Criminals and Crime (1907) and The Lighter Side of My Official Life (1910). Also numerous articles in journals, including anonymous contributions to the 1887 series ‘ ParnellismAndCrime^? ‘ in TheTimes, for which he made improper (but fascinating) use of secret official information.

Anderson’s appointment to ScotlandYard was made the justification for abolishing the post of legal adviser to the Commissioner, since Anderson was a trained lawyer. This was, perhaps, unfortunate for Sir CharlesWarren, since Anderson was away on sick leave and then taken up with the JackTheRipper case during the climactic months when the Commissioner most needed advice on his powers and responsibilities with respect to the HomeOffice.

Anderson’s term of office in ScotlandYard included the most substantial reduction in recorded crime in the history of the Met, the crime figures for 1899 being the lowest ever. This achievement was noted by early historians of the police but has been overshadowed since by the introduction of fingerprinting^? by his successor, Sir EdwardHenry^?.

• Fido, Martin, and Keith Skinner. “Anderson, Sir Robert.” The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard. Rev. and uptdated ed. London: Virgin, 2000.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 22 Jan 2005