Arthur & George

Harry Charlesworth sent an account of an incident which had taken place in Great Wyrley in the late autumn or early winter of 1903. Mrs Jarius Handley was coming from Wyrley Station one evening, having gone there to buy some papers for sale. She was accompanied by her young daughter. They were accosted in the road by two men. One of them caught the girl by the throat, and held something in his hand which gleamed. Both mother and child screamed, whereupon the man ran away, crying to his comrade who had gone on, 'All right, Jack, I am coming.' The girl declared that her mother had been stopped once before by the same man. He was described as having a round face, no moustache, about 5ft 8ins in height, a dark suit, a shiny peaked cap. This description fitted that of Royden Sharp, who at the time wore a sailor-like costume, which he had subsequently abandoned. It was further suggested that 'Jack' was Jack Hart, a dissolute butcher and known companion of Sharp's. The police had been informed, but there was no arrest made in the case.

Harry added in a post-scriptum that Fred Wy

On Friday March 1st, after a six-week delay intended perhaps to show that the Home Secretary was not responding to pressure from any one known source, a Committee of Inquiry was a

Arthur decided that these gentlemen should not be left to jaw at one another complacently about 'certain procedural matters'. To his reworked Telegraph articles – which would themselves prove George's i

'Well, you have your Committee,' said Wood, as they pulled their cues from the rack that evening.

'I would rather say that they have their Committee.'

'By which you indicate that you are less than satisfied?'

'I have some hope that even these gentlemen ca

'But?'

'But – you know who Albert de Rutzen is?'

'The Chief Magistrate of London, my newspaper informs me.'

'He is that, he is that. He is also the cousin of Captain Anson.'

George amp; Arthur

George had read the Telegraph articles several times before writing to thank Sir Arthur; and he read them once again before their second meeting at the Grand Hotel, Charing Cross. It was most disconcerting to see oneself described not by some provincial pe

Here was Sir Arthur explaining why he, George, could not possibly have been involved with the supposed band of Wyrley ruffians: 'In the first place, he is a total abstainer, which in itself hardly seems to commend him to such a gang. He does not smoke. He is very shy and nervous. He is a most distinguished student.' This was all true, and yet untrue; flattering, yet unflattering; believable, yet unbelievable. He was not a most distinguished student; merely a good, hardworking one. He had received second-class honours, not first, the bronze medal, not silver or gold, from the Birmingham Law Society. He was certainly a capable solicitor, more so than Greenway or Stentson were likely to become, but he would never be eminent. Equally, he was not, by his own estimation, very shy. And if he had been judged nervous on the basis of that previous meeting at the hotel, then there were mitigating circumstances. He had been sitting in the foyer reading his newspaper, begi

He did not smoke. This was true. He judged it a pointless, unpleasant and costly habit. But also one unco

He in no way minimized the value and quality of Sir Arthur's work. The articles described with rare skill a chain of circumstances which seem so extraordinary that they are far beyond the invention of the writer of fiction. George had read and reread with pride and gratitude such declarations as Until each and all of these questions is settled a dark stain will remain upon the administrative a