- Edward Henry
Sir Edward Richard Henry,1st Baronet GCVO KCB CSI KPM (
26 July ,1850 –19 February ,1931 ) was theCommissioner of Police of the Metropolis (head of the Metropolitan Police ofLondon ) from 1903 to 1918.His commission saw the introduction of
police dog s to the force (a development which he regarded with good will), but he is best remembered today for his championship of the method offingerprint ing to identify criminals.Early life
Henry was born at
Shadwell ,London to Irish parents; ["Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "] his father was a doctor. He studied at St Edmund's College, Ware,Hertfordshire , and at sixteen he joinedLloyds of London as a clerk.He meanwhile took
evening class es atUniversity College, London to prepare for the entrance examination of theIndian Civil Service .Early service in India
In 1873, he passed the exam and was appointed to the Indian Civil Service, being posted to the Bengal Taxation Service as an Assistant
Magistrate -Collector. He became fluent inUrdu andHindi . In 1888, he was promoted to Magistrate-Collector. In 1890, he becameaide-de-camp and secretary to theLieutenant-Governor ofBengal and Joint Secretary to the Board of Revenue of Bengal.On
24 November ,1890 , he married Louisa Langrishe Moore.Inspector-General of Police
On
2 April ,1891 , Henry was appointedInspector-General of Police of Bengal. He had already been exchanging letters withFrancis Galton regarding the use of fingerprinting to identify criminals, either instead of or in addition to the anthropometric method ofAlphonse Bertillon , which Henry introduced into the Bengal police department.The taking of fingerprints and
palm print s had been common among officialdom in Bengal as a means of identification for forty years, having been introduced by Sir William Herschel, but it was not used by the police and there was no system of simple sorting to allow rapid identification of an individual print (although classification of types was already used).Between July 1896 and February 1897, with the assistance of
Sub-Inspector sAzizul Haque andHemchandra Bose , Henry developed a system of fingerprint classification enabling fingerprint records to be organised and searched with relative ease. It was Haque who was primarily responsible for developing a mathematical formula to supplement Henry's idea of sorting in 1,024 pigeon holes based on fingerprint patterns. Years later, both Haque and Bose, on Henry's recommendation, received recognition by the British Government for their contribution to the development of fingerprint classification. [ [http://www.jpgmonline.com/article.asp?issn=0022-3859;year=2000;volume=46;issue=4;spage=303;epage=8;aulast=Tewari "History and development of forensic science in India", by R. K. Tewari and K. V. Ravikumar, "Journal of Postgraduate Medicine", 2000,46:303-308] ] [ [http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jan102005/185.pdf "The forgotten Indian pioneers of fingerprint science", by J. S. Sodhi and Jasjeed Kaur, "Current Science" 2005, 88(1):185-191] ] [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0786885289 "Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and Murder Case that Launched Forensic Science", by Colin Beavan, Hyperion, NY, USA, 2001] ]In 1897, the
Government of India published Henry'smonograph , "Classification and Uses of Fingerprints ". TheHenry Classification System quickly caught on with other police forces, and in July 1897 theGovernor-General of India decreed that fingerprinting should be made an official policy of theBritish Raj . This classification system was developed to facilitate orderly storage and faster search of fingerprint cards, called ten print cards. It was used when the ten print cards were cataloged and searched manually and not digitally. Each ten print card was tagged with attributes that can vary from 1/1 to 32/32.In 1899, the use of fingerprint experts in court was recognised by the Indian Evidence Act.
In 1898, he was made a Companion of the Star of India (CSI).
In 1900, Henry was seconded to
South Africa to organise thecivil police inPretoria andJohannesburg .In the same year, while on leave in London, Henry spoke before the
Home Office Belper Committee on the identification of criminals on the merits ofBertillonage and fingerprinting.Assistant Commissioner (Crime)
In 1901, Henry was recalled to Britain to take up the office of Assistant Commissioner (Crime) at
Scotland Yard , in charge of theCriminal Investigation Department (CID).On
1 July ,1901 , Henry established theMetropolitan Police Fingerprint Bureau , Britain's first. Its primary purpose was originally not to assist in identifying criminals, but to prevent criminals from concealing previous convictions from the police, courts and prisons.However, it was used to ensure the conviction of burglar
Harry Jackson in 1902 and soon caught on with CID. This usage was later cemented when fingerprint evidence was used to secure the convictions of Alfred and Albert Stratton for murder in 1905.Henry introduced other innovations as well. He bought the first
typewriter s to be used in Scotland Yard outside theRegistry , replacing the laborious hand copying of the clerks.In 1902, he ran a private
telegraph line fromPaddington Green Police Station to his home, and later replaced it with atelephone in 1904.Commissioner
On Sir
Edward Bradford 's retirement in 1903, Henry was appointed Commissioner, which had always been the Home Office's plan.Henry is generally regarded as one of the great Commissioners. He was responsible for dragging the Metropolitan Police into the modern day, and away from the class-ridden
Victorian era .He continued with his technological innovations, installing telephones in all divisional stations and standardising the use of
police box es, which Bradford had introduced as an experiment but never expanded upon.He also soon increased the strength of the force by 1,600 men and introduced the first proper training for new
constable s.In 1905, Henry was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) and the following year was
knight ed as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). In 1910 he was made Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB). In 1911, he was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) after attending the King and Queen at theDelhi Durbar .He was also a Grand Cross of the Dannebrog of
Denmark , a Commander of theLégion d'honneur ofFrance , and a member of theOrder of Vila Viçosa ofPortugal and theOrder of St. Sava ofYugoslavia , as well as an ExtraEquerry to the King.He was awarded the
King's Police Medal (KPM) in the 1909 Birthday Honours.Attempted assassination
On Wednesday
27 November ,1912 , while at his home inKensington , Henry survived an assassination attempt by one Alfred Bowes (also reported as "Albert" Bowes), a disgruntled cab driver whose licence application had been refused.Bowes fired three shots with a
revolver when Henry opened his front door: two missed, and the third pierced Henry'sabdomen , missing all the vital organs. Henry'schauffeur then tackled his assailant. Bowes faced a life sentence forattempted murder , but due to Henry's testimony on his behalf received only 15 years.Henry never really recovered from the ordeal, and the pain of the bullet wound recurred for the rest of his life. He began to lose touch with his men, as Commissioners before him had done.
First World War
Henry would have retired in 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War convinced him to remain in office, as his designated successor, General Sir
Nevil Macready , was required by theWar Office , where he wasAdjutant-General . He remained in office throughout the war.The end of Henry's career came about due to the police strike of 1918. Police pay had not kept up with wartime inflation, and their conditions of service and
pension arrangements were also poor.On
30 August ,1918 , 11,000 officers of the Metropolitan Police andCity of London Police went on strike while Henry was on leave. The frightened government gave in to almost all their demands. Feeling let down both by his men and by the government, whom he saw as encouragingtrade union ism within the police (something he vehemently disagreed with), Henry immediately resigned on31 August . He was widely seen as a scapegoat for political failures.Later life
On
25 November ,1918 , Henry was created abaronet , and in 1920 he and his family retired to Cissbury, nearAscot, Berkshire .He continued to be involved in fingerprinting advances and was on the committee of the
Athenaeum Club and theNational Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children , as well as serving as aJustice of the Peace for Berkshire. He died at his home in 1931 of a heart attack, aged 80.The Baronetcy became extinct, since his only son (he also had two daughters), Edward John Grey Henry, had died in 1930 at the age of 22.
His grave lay unattended for many years. In April 1992, it was located in the cemetery adjoining All Souls Church, South Ascot, and thanks to a campaign by the
Fingerprint Society , the grave was renovated in 1994.Footnotes
References
*"The Times" Digital Archive
*Biography, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "
*Martin Fido & Keith Skinner, "The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard" (Virgin Books, London:1999)External links
* [http://www.met.police.uk/so/100years/henry.htm Metropolitan Police website]
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