Correspondence between Charles Arrow and The Duke of Abercorn, President of the Civilian Force
Arrow to Abercorn
January 15th, 1912
My Lord Duke,
Please forgive my presumption in writing to you, but having just seen the report in The Times, December 12th inst, of your involvement in the new Civilian Force, I feel that I must write, since I have no small experience in these matters.
Having left the Metropolitan Police, I spent three years in Spain between the years of 1907 and 1910 leading a force dedicated to tracking down and bringing to justice anarchists and other politically motivated undesirables. You will be aware I am sure of the sterling work of the Pinkerton Agency in America in countering the pernicious effect of anarchist and socialist agitators. I am convinced that we will soon need their like here in England. It is my belief that our police forces will soon be unable to cope. Until now we have been a generally law abiding country, but increasingly anarchists, Fenians and others are making use of industrial disorder to promote their own evil ends, making use of the inability of the Trades Union officials to control their own men. To that end, since returning to England a year ago, I have spent my time working to create a similar British agency.
It seems, from the formation of the Civilian Force that you have reached similar conclusions to my own about the dangers we face. I have recently secured the services of a very capable former army officer, with direct experience of facing down these agitators, although he was very badly served by his superiors after serving with distinction in South Wales in 1910 and Liverpool in 1911. This gallant officer, Mr George Blenkinsopp, formerly held the rank of Major and has now joined me as my deputy in the Arrow Mercantile Security.
We have discussed the Civilian Force and it appears to both of us, that as the Force grows, as indeed it MUST grow, it will need a capable director at its head. I am aware of course of your own eminent services to this country, but I am also aware of your great responsibilities elsewhere. I would like therefore to offer to the Civilian Force, the services of Mr Blenkinsopp as Permanent Secretary to the Civilian Force. My own company would bear the costs of employing him and he would only need to be recompensed for expenses incurred on behalf of the Force.
In the longer term, I anticipate that the men I recruit to the Agency, will be of like mind and may well be useful as an experienced cadre to bolster a volunteer force.
May I be so bold as to attend upon your Lordship with Mr Blenkinsopp to offer further information on these matters with you or such others as you may feel appropriate?
Respectfully,
Charles Arrow
~~~
Abercorn to Arrow
February 8th, 1912
My dear Arrow,
I confess to being somewhat taken aback by your initial letter and wondered if you were trying to push on to me some sort of efficiency management. However, I was persuaded to a meeting by a desire to hear more of your experiences in Spain and how we might learn from them. I am pleased that we did and am especially pleased to have met Major Blenkinsopp and look forward to his continued involvement with the Civilian Force. I agree with you that he has been poorly treated and regret that we cannot, because of that, make public reference to his military rank and service.
Abercorn
Note on Edit
This was essentially a 'still here' post, which I have replaced with the text above to keep it in sequence. It was missed at the time.