Frederick Porter Wensley
(1865-1949), Chief Constable, Scotland YardSitter associated with 1 portrait
by Howard Coster
bromide print, 1930
NPG Ax2308
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Stephen Wensley
30 September 2016, 22:04
Fred Wensley was born in Brompton Regis, Exmoor, in 1865. He moved to London and became a police constable where the first case he worked on as a beat copper was Jack The Ripper. He later went onto to found the Flying Squad (Sweeney), he was at the Sidney Street siege which Home Secretary Winston Churchill personally took charge of and his autobiography, Detective Days, was serialised in the American press. I don't know if its true but Arthur Consn Doyle was supposed to have based Sherlock Holmes in part on Fred. His two sons were killed in action in WWI. He was awarded an OBE.