“ FRED WENSLEY.”

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1929, Page 2

“ FRED WENSLEY.”

(By F. W. MEMORY, in the London Baily Mail). •

It is as “Fred” that Chief Constabk Frederick Wensley, the retiring chief o> the Criminal Investigation Departmenl Aew Scotland Yard, is known to hundreds of criminals throughout the British Isles.

This is in itself a testimony to tin worth of the man who has been rightly described as the chief detective in England. It indicates that the criminal classes regard him with something akin to affection and esteem, and it is evidence that he has always discharged what must to them be disagreeable duties in manner which has left no,had blood.

Authors of detective stories in search of a type would he sadly dis appointed with Chief Constable W easier. He is not spectacular; nine hundred and ninety-nine persons' out of every thousand would not believi tnat he is. a detective.

“Oh, no” they would say, looking a J this homely face, quitely dressed man who always has a smile lurking round his mouth. “He is probably the departmental manager of a big business.”

And they would not be far wrong Mr Wensley is the departmental manager of a big business —rtlie biggest of its kind in the world—the business of running down crimanals. There is no one to excel , him in that very difficult task. Ho is behind the scenes in every criminal investigation which takes place in London or whereever Scotland Yard offices are engaged. He does not court the limelight of publicity, nor does he seek to wear the . laurels which fail to his subordinates. But those subordinates would be the first to admit that he is entitled to them.

He does most of his work in a pleasant room'at Scotland Yard overlooking the Thames. If the walls of that room could speak they would tell how time after time Fred. Wensley, with his remarkable insight into the mentality of modern criminals and his unrivalled knowledge of their methods has unravelled many a problem that seemed insoluble. It is an education in analytical deduction to hear him marshal the facts of a particularly complicated case and develop a theory which invariably lends someone to gaol or even the gallows.

Although Chief Constable Wensley has the flair for defective work he would probably tell you that his great asset is patience and in unrivalled knowledge of criminals and their ways. East End, and although it is many years since he was transferred to the West End his name is still one to conjure with in those haunts where the most desperate of criminals gather. Like the gods, criminals love, a brave man, and Mr Wensley. does not know what fear is. It is on record that he has never gone But this has not prevented him from walking in under the levelled guns of desperadoes to effect an arrest or carry out what he conceived to be his duty. It was he who, when Detective-Ser-geant Leeson was shot down at the battle of Sidney-street, turned back under a hail of bullets to carry his subordinate to safety. And many years ago he engaged single-handed in a struggle with an armed murderer on a housetop. He brought his man safely to the ground—and the gallows.