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Detective Inspector Jonathan 'Jack' Whicher (1 October 1814–29 June 1881) was one of the original eight members of the newly formed Detective Branch which was established at Scotland Yard in 1842.〔('Constance Kent and the Road Hill House Murder' - Metropolitan Police website )〕 In 1860 he was involved in the Constance Kent murder case which was the subject of Kate Summerscale's 2008 book ''The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'' and the film of the same name. He was one of the inspirations for Charles Dickens’s Inspector Bucket, Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse, Wilkie Collins' Sergeant Cuff and R. D. Wingfield's Jack Frost, among other fictional detectives.〔('The Victorian Morse: Jack Whicher, the Met’s finest sleuth, inspired the fictional detective and a new TV drama revealing the case that nearly finished him' - ''The Daily Mail'' 15 April 2011 )〕〔 ==Early years== Whicher was born in 1814 in Camberwell in London, the son of Rebecca and Richard Whicher, a gardener. He was baptised on 23 October 1814 at St Giles' Church in Camberwell.〔(London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Record for Jonathan Whitcher - Ancestry.co.uk )〕 After working as a labourer he passed the physical and literary tests and joined the Metropolitan Police on 18 September 1837 as a police constable with the number E47 (Holborn Division). Whicher was 5' 8" tall, with brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes. He married Elizabeth Harding (born 1818), and they had a son Jonathan Whicher (born 1838), who died young. By 1841 he was living in a police dormitory in a stationhouse in Gray's Inn Lane in St Pancras.〔(1841 England Census Record for Jonathan Whicher - ''Ancestry.co.uk'' )〕〔('The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: an inspector calls' - ''The Daily Telegraph'' 29 March 2008 )〕 In August 1842 he and seven other men joined the newly formed Detective Branch at Scotland Yard. Whicher received the new number A27 (Whitehall Division) and was promoted to Detective Sergeant shortly after.〔(Summerscale, Kate ''The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'' Bloomsbury Publishing, Ltd (2008) pg 51 ''Google Books'' )〕 Whicher was described by a colleague as "The prince of detectives". Charles Dickens, who met him, described him as "shorter and thicker-set" than his fellow officers, marked with smallpox scars and possessed of "a reserved and thoughtful air, as if he were engaged in deep arithmetical calculations".〔('The Prince of Sleuths' - ''The Guardian'' 5 April 2008 )〕 William Henry Wills, Dickens's deputy editor at ''Household Words'' magazine, saw Whicher involved in police work in 1850 and described him as a 'man of mystery'. In May 1851 Whicher was accused of entrapment when he and Inspector Lund saw John Tyler, a convict who had been transported to Australia as a criminal and had recently returned, in Trafalgar Square. Whicher and Lund watched Tyler meet William Cauty, another known criminal, and sit with him on a bench in The Mall opposite the London and Westminster Bank in St James's Square. Whicher and Lund watched the two as they returned to the same bench every day for six weeks and watched the bank. Eventually, on 28 June 1851 they caught the two red-handed as they ran from the bank having robbed it.〔('Extraordinary Robbery at the London and Westminster Bank' - Wellington Independent, Volume VII, Issue 635, 12 November 1851, Page 4 National Library of New Zealand Archive )〕 ''The Times'' criticised the police for allowing the crime to take place rather than preventing it. Whicher also pursued criminals who counterfeited coins, forged signatures on cheques and money orders, as well as pickpockets and conmen.〔Summerscale, pg 53〕 In 1854 Whicher was involved in the capture of the valet who stole ten pictures including the 'Virgin and Child' by Leonardo da Vinci (then valued at £4,000) from the home of the Earl of Suffolk near Malmesbury. The valet and his accomplices were unable to sell the pictures and they were discovered under one of the arches of Blackfriars Bridge.〔('Stolen Pictures' - ''The Lotus Magazine'' Vol. 6, No. 4, January 1915 pg 205 )〕 Whicher was promoted to Detective Inspector in 1856. When Italian revolutionaries organised by Felice Orsini tried to assassinate Napoleon III in 1858 in Paris, Whicher took part in the hunt to track them down. In 1859 he investigated when the Reverend James Bonwell, the married Rector of St Philip the Apostle in Stepney and his lover Miss Lizzie Yorath, a clergyman's daughter, were charged with murdering their illegitimate son. Bonwell had paid an undertaker 18 shillings to bury the dead child secretly in a coffin with a deceased stranger. The couple were found not guilty of murder but were censured by the jury, and in 1860 Archibald Tait, the Bishop of London, sued Bonwell for misconduct.〔('The Rev. James Bonwell's Case Judgement' - ''Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal'' Wednesday 2 October 1861 )〕〔('6 June 1860 --- The Disgraceful Case at Stepney' - The Victorian Calendar )〕 In early 1860 Whicher caught Emily Lawrence and James Pearce, who had stolen £12,000 worth of jewellery from jewellers' shops in Paris by examining valuable items on trays and then 'palming' them.〔Summerscale, pg 55〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jack Whicher」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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