The revolution begins
It was a small step at the time. Faced with dissent and political violence at home, the Spanish Government sought advice in 1907 from Britain on the appointment of someone to create and direct a secret service bureau that would, in the words of a press report at the time, “wage war on anarchists and people suspected of bomb outrages”. Chief Inspector Charles Arrow, newly retired from Scotland Yard was recommended for the role by the then head of CID in the Metropolitan Police, Sir Melville Macnaghten.
It isn't clear why Arrow's name was put forward. He had no previous experience of dealing with political or even gang crime. He had particular expertise in dealing with blackmailers and domestic murders – the so-called crimes of passion so beloved of cheap novelettes of the period. Despite this he appears to have taken to his new role with relish.
In a newspaper interview in 1926 he was quoted as saying:
“I was always guarded by armed men. My hotel and my offices were protected day and night by machine gunners. I always carried two guns when I went out; I kept my hand on one in my pocket at all times – just like a Chicago Gangster – and carried the other in a hip pocket. At the most violent period in 1909, the streets leading to my hotel were barricaded but the hotel was often fired on by snipers on rooftops. The hotel chef was killed in his bed by a ricochet and two members of my guard were shot dead at different times. I was constantly receiving death threats but I did not let them worry me over much. I just looked on them as an old Spanish custom.”
After about 3 years Arrow returned to Britain. He later alleged that his dismissal was the price paid by the Spanish government for a truce with the revolutionaries, but stories also emerged, admittedly from the revolutionary side, of excessive violence and summary executions on the part of his bureau.
His return to Britain in 1910 coincided with the beginnings of the that period before the outbreak of war called by many 'The Great Unrest' – a period of religious and political ferment so extreme that it destabilised the very fabric of British society. Arrow's evident disdain for foreigners shown in his comment about 'old Spanish customs' was soon expressed publicly in various newspaper articles and extended generally to cover the Irish and Jews. He also seems to have retained a taste for anti-left wing activities. His name was linked from time to time with various right wing groups, such as the British Brothers League. His association with these groups brought him into contact with many prominent figures on the right of British politics, including John Pretyman Newman, Charles Burn, Robert Burton-Chadwick and most notorious of all perhaps, Noel Pemberton Billing. In the post war years he exploited these links to the full.
In 1911, he made his first overt step into public life in the UK, setting up the Silver Arrow Agency. Nominally this was a private inquiry agency, although his client list included many major industrialists, banks and some government departments, such as the Northern Lighthouse Board, which appeared at first glance to have little use for such services as the Agency provided. Initially Arrow appears to have given preference in recruitment to men with military rather than police experience. By 1913 the agency was employing some 250 men. Although they normally operated in civilian dress, they also had a uniform which they wore when performing security duties such as escorting payroll deliveries. The emblem of the agency was a single arrow in a circle. This symbol was also used in various forms to denote ranks within the organisation.
Although never publicly acknowledged, Arrow appears to have had as his model, the Pinkerton Agency of the USA, not just as a detective agency, but also for the part that agency played in suppressing labour disputes throughout the latter half of the 19th Century. In a letter to Burton-Chadwick, dated 11th November 1912 he says:
“I have been very much impressed with the work of the Pinkerton men in America. They have done much to reduce the pernicious effect of union agitators and I am convinced that we will soon need their like here in England. The dreadful strikes in South Wales and most recently in Liverpool have made me realise that our police forces will soon be unable to cope. Their size is based on the fundamental philosophy that we are a law abiding country, but things have now got to the state where increasing numbers are not prepared to respect the law. Anarchists, Fenians and others will, I am convinced, make use of this disorder to promote their own evil ends, if indeed they are not already doing so.”
By the outbreak of war, Arrow was also in touch, not just with prominent political figures on the right, but also people like Basil Thomson, head of the CID at the Metropolitan Police, Francis Caldwell, Head Constable of Liverpool Police and with many other Chief Constables of provincial forces across Britain. Wherever an industrial dispute broke out, he seems to have made it his practice to contact the Chief Constable for the area, offering advice and services. In Manchester for example, he appears to have offered his services in escorting food vehicles into the City and in transporting strike breakers. There is no evidence that any of these offers were taken up, or even that he expected such to happen, but the contacts he made with these key men and their associates proved critical in the post war years.
(not so much a reboot as a step back a little)