Autograph letter signed “George S. White,” mourning stationery, as Governor of Gilbraltar.
Gibraltar: The Convent, 26 December 1902.
Price: $175.00
About the item
4 pages. 1 vols. 12mo. To Sir Melville MacNaghten, who at this time was Assistant Chief Constable, CID, Scotland Yard, later to be Chief Constable and Assistant Commissioner. Folded, remains of stubs on back, else very good.
Item #27387
Writing from the Convent, the Governor's Residence White puts forth a request explaining that following the transfer of Mr. Bennet, Chief of Police Gibraltar to Pretoria to organize a criminal investigation department there the police matters in Gibraltar were being looked after by the Senior Inspector J. Lewis Bradford. White does not consider Bradford ready to take on the responsibilities “Placed as Gibraltar is in close touch with one of the [ ] populations in the South of Spain there are often police duties that require great judgment in their performance & it is of considerable importance to get a man of education, judgement, sobriety and unswerving honesty to deal with the complications that often arise & the temptations to corruption that are ever present.” He asks MacNaghten whether he could recommend a replacement for Bennet.¶ George Stuart White, British field Marshal, was governor of Gilbraltar 1900-1904. He was a noted military man and present at many of the major actions of the era: he was with the Inniskillings in India during the Indian Mutiny, he was with the Gordon Highlanders in the Second Afthan War and again as part of the Nile Expedition of 1884-5. He was in the Burmese War, in command of he Zhob expedition in 1890, made commander in chief in India in 1893, in 1899 for the Boer War he was commander of the fources in Natal and his most famous action at Ladysmith. His actions brought him the field marshal's baton in 1903.¶ MacNaghten is often remembered for the MacNaghten Memoranda which was written in response the the “Sun's” reports that Thomas Cutbush was Jack the Ripper.
