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Group to William Melville, Superintendent C.O. C.I.D. Special Irish Branch, Special Branch and Spymaster MI5, the original "M" :- M.V.O. reverse no. 41, Royal
Victorian Medal (QV, Silver), M.B.E. (1st type, civil), Coronation Police medal 1902 in Silver , Metropolitan Police reverse named William Melville, Supt. C.O. (C.I.D.),
Neck Badge of the Commander of the Order of Isabel la Catolica (Spain), Officer de la Legion d-Honneur (France), Order of St. Sava reverse dated 1883 (Serbia), Order
of Saint Sylvester 1905 (Vatican). His police whistle, four original testimonials issued by the Mayor of the City of Westminster. Also a Branch Memoranda type written by
him giving a full account of his career in M.I.5 from 1903 to 1917. Group also contains 1887 Police Jubilee Medal Met Police to P.C. W. Foy G.Div. the original husband
of his second wife.
William Melville was born on 25th April 1850 in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland. He was the eldest son of James and Catherine (nee Connor) and had two brothers;
Richard born 1859 and George born in 1868. The Melville family who owned a pub and a bakery were well known in the community. William was baptised in the local
Catholic Church, attended school and in his teens was considered one of the best hurlers in the area. Young William helped his family business and every week travelled
by pony and cart to Killarney. The story goes that one week the pony and trap were found outside the station but no William was to be found. This young man had like
many young men of the time left Ireland to seek fame, fortune and adventure in London. Melville joined the Metropolitan Police in September 1872 and spent the first 6
months stationed at Bow Street and patrolled Covent Garden to Holborn and the area known as Little Dublin with his truncheon and whistle.
In 1879 Melville had been promoted from Constable to Detective Sergeant in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) stationed in south London. This was a
busy time for Melville as in February he married Kate Reilly from County Mayo in St George's Church, Southwark. For the next 4 years Melville was a D.S. in the South
London C.I.D. In March 1883 he was recruited into a small special branch known as the Special Irish Branch. The Special Irish Branch was set up to combat the Fenian
dynamite campaign of the 1880s. There were over 19 bombing attacks; they struck against major London landmarks such as the Palace of Westminster, Whitehall, the
Tower of London. The Special Irish Branch were charged with foiling the bombers. The Dynamite War subsided from 1886 but another Fenian plot emerged in 1887. An
American based Fenian F.F. Millen plotted to bomb Queen Victoria's golden jubilee celebrations. The 'Jubilee Plot' was foiled as Melville and the Special Irish Branch
watched Millen and his co-conspirators around the clock forcing them to abandon their plot. This whole episode is cloaked in secret plans and counter plots, and it transpires
that Millen was in fact a British agent the real target being to tarnish the reputation of the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party Charles Stewart Parnell.
Melville was involved in one of the most baffling cases of the Metropolitan Police; the Jack the Ripper killings. Jack the Ripper is the name given to a vicious murderer
who killed and mutilated five women in 1888. One of the suspects was an American man named Francis Tumbelty a quack doctor with a known hatred for women. In
November 1888 he fled London, travelling to America via France. Melville was stationed in France at the time and attempted to catch and arrest Tumbelty but the suspect
managed to escape. The Special Irish Branch was reorganised and Melville moved to a new and very small secret section called simply the Special Branch and was promoted
to Inspector. Melville uncovered anarchist bomb plots and his reputation was enhanced when he was responsible for foiling plots to manufacture bombs to use against the
Russian regime. Melville’s arrest of the anarchist Meunier a Café Very bomber at Victoria Station in April 1894 was widely reported as whilst resisting arrest Meunier tried
to drag Melville under the wheels of a train reportedly shouting 'To fall into your hands, Melville! You the only man I feared and whose description was engraved on my
mind'.
Melville was married to Kate and had four children; sadly Kate died of pneumonia in March 1889. Melville engaged the services of Mrs Amelia Foy the widow of a
colleague in SIB (W. Foy) eventually Melville married Mrs Foy.
In 1900 at the peak of his career he was promoted to Superintendent. He suddenly retired three years later and such was the interest in his antics that in 1906 the
Daily Express reported that he had gone to work for the Russians. Melville denied this vigorously reporting he had quietly retired but nothing was further from the truth.
In 1903 the War Office set up a Directorate of Military Operations, MO2 and MO3, both dealing with intelligence gathering. Melville was the man for the job and
his role was to act as general controller for the War Office. Melville drew upon his vast knowledge and experience of working with other national secret services and
cultivating characters that would become espionage agents. He also undertook a number of secret missions of his own at home and abroad. His office was in Victoria Street,
adjacent to Scotland Yard and he began a career as an espionage agent under the name William Morgan. Melville would report to Captain Francis Davies under alias of
'M'. Melville undertook many missions including British access to Persian oil reserves.
In 1909 the Secret Service Bureau was sent up to co-ordinate intelligence work under two sections; 'home section' later known as MI5 and 'foreign section' known as
MI6. As chief detective for SSB Melville investigated suspicious foreigners and set up a register of aliens. In 1912 Melville discovered a network of German agents that were
eventually rounded up.
The 27 page original dossier that comes with this group goes on to detail much of the work done by Melville including action against Boer terrorist suspects, German
pre WW1 spies including a chat with the Kaiser at Windsor when they discussed the German agent Steinheuer.
He did much work with the Russian intelligence as there were many plotters in London threatening the overthrow of the Czar.
Melville dealt also with the Gun runners to Persia and Abyssinia; Agricultural German farmer students working on an Ipswich farm and mapping the area.
Melville worked tirelessly investigating the many reports of German spies and this work took it's toll when he retired at the end of 1917 and died of Kidney failure in
1918. A superb group to a famous and interesting man. (9) Est.
£1000 - £1200