{"id":1325,"date":"2019-01-31T19:27:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T19:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2020-02-20T16:27:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T16:27:38","slug":"using-personal-sources-lost-london-the-memoirs-of-an-east-end-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1325","title":{"rendered":"Using Personal Sources: Lost London; the memoirs of an East End detective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Emily Burgess, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on the memoirs of an East End detective, Sergeant B. Leeson, for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Emily discusses how we can use personal sources such as this to understand more about social anxieties at the time of their writing. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crime in the Victorian period has become significant through such cases as the Whitechapel murders. With the use of personal sources, those involved in the investigations into these murders can provide historians with an individual and somewhat hidden insight into the criminality of late nineteenth century Britain. This blog will focus on the memoirs of Detective Sergeant B. Leeson and his recollection of the East End of London between 1890 and 1891. [1] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leeson\u2019s\nmemoir was interestingly written and published 43 years after the horrific\nmurder of Frances Coles. Her murder was bound up with further concerns over the\nreturn of Jack the Ripper whose last recorded victim was found two years prior.\nWhen analysing this personal source, it is important to recognise the space\nbetween the recorded event and the source\u2019s creation as it can present issues\nfor historians over the accuracy of the document. It has been identified that\nthe memory of a single event can change dramatically with age, and even though\nLeeson was a witness to the event and a notable one due to his position as a\npolice officer, his depiction of the murder 43 years later could be\nsignificantly faulty due to his own memory. [2] Equally, any distortions to his\ninterpretation could be a result of outside influences. An example from the\nlate Victorian period would be the press who were quick to perpetuate any\nmurders associated with Jack the Ripper to a public audience. This is supported\nby Alistair Thompson who emphasises the importance of identifying different\nfactors that shape a source, and that these factors can be a result of wider\nsocial aspects. [3] Therefore, it is important to be careful when analysing\npersonal sources as although they may seem personal, they could have been\ninfluenced by outside elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nlooking at the historiography surrounding this time period (1890-91), there is\nheavy emphasis placed on rising social panic due to high crime rates; and\nparticularly the fear of serial killer Jack the Ripper who was never caught.\nThis is evident with the mounting public panic within the period, and is\nreflected within the source as \u201chundreds of police and civilians took part in\nthe search\u201d for the murderer. [4] It can be identified from this statement that\nthe investigation was vast and was aided by many different people from the\narea, proving it to be a joint effort from a mainly working-class community\nthat had been affected by the Whitechapel murders. In correlation to this, the\ntime of publishing, 1934, was also a period of increasing social unrest due to\nhigh unemployment rates. These increasing rates of unemployment led to\nsignificant anxiety during the \u2018hungry 30s\u2019 due to the fear of crime and social\nconflict. [5] Subsequently, historians can benefit from personal documents such\nas this one as they allow an \u201cunderstanding of social and cultural conditions.\u201d\n[6] Personal sources such as Leeson\u2019s can even reflect social issues\nsurrounding the time of publishing, evident with the correlating social crisis\nsurrounding the working class. They can also provide information that was not\nnecessarily intended. Within this text, Leeson speaks of the belief that the\n\u201cRipper crimes were not the work of any human agency.\u201d [7] Due to this\nstatement, topics such as belief in the supernatural are brought up. Even\nthough this was not the intention of the source, it can be useful in analysing\nVictorian superstition which is known to be prevalent within British culture at\nthis time. This is supported by J.\nJeffrey Franklin who identified the widespread emergence of spirituality and\noccultism within the Victorian period. [8]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognising\nthe purpose of this source is also essential in understanding why the material,\nthat being the murder, is presented in a certain way. Even though it is considered\na personal document, the intended audience of this text is vast. The source was\nmade for public consumption and as a result need to be addressed with caution.\nIt is therefore important to recognise the motive of the publisher. The\npublisher of this specific source, Stanley Paul and Co is also of interest as\nthey were a London based company and published this memoir which heavily\nfocused on the East End of London. This suggests that they wanted to perpetuate\nthe history of this specific area. Questions have to be asked such as whether\nthe source has been exaggerated or dramatized to entice further public\ninterest. This is evident as the crime scene is graphically detailed and speaks\nof how the \u201cwoman laid with her head nearly severed from her body.\u201d [9] Kaspar\nvon Greyerz addresses how authors consciously alter their reminiscence in a\ncertain direction for the benefit of themselves or the audience. [10] In light\nof this, the account provided by Leeson is still valuable as he saw it happen\neven if the motivation of the piece was to sell to the public. Historians also\nneed to be cautious when dealing with personal sources concerning disturbing\nevents as the perception of the author could have been altered due to trauma.\nLeeson himself states his \u201cinexperience\u201d and how he witnessed the body when he\nwas only a young police constable, bringing into question his mental state and\nwhether the shock could have affected his recollection of the murder. [11] As a\nresult, it is important to compare and contrast different documents in order to\ngain a clearer picture of the circumstance in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog focused on Detective Sergeant B. Leeson\u2019s recollection of the murder of Frances Coles as well as historical debates surrounding personal sources. The intended purpose of this source was to document and present this murder to a public audience. In recognising this, ideas surrounding the publisher and author\u2019s motives had to be considered. This source also reflected themes such as social anxiety, which linked both the time of publishing and the event itself proving to be a valuable tool for historians in understanding contemporary issues. In addition to this, the text brought up various limitations surrounding personal sources. These limitations were highlighted within Leeson\u2019s memoir due to time, trauma, and his own memory which could affect the accuracy of his depiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] Benjamin Leeson. \u201cLost London; the memoirs of an East End detective\u201d (Stanley Paul and Co. LTD. 1934) 41-42.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Michael Roper. \u201cRe-remembering the Soldier Hero: The Psychic and Social Construction of Memory in Personal Narratives of the Great War\u201d History Workshop Journal<\/em>, 2000, no. 50, 1 (2000) 199.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] Alistair Thompson.\n\u201cLife stories and historical analysis\u201d in Research\nMethods for History <\/em>ed. Simon Gunn, Lucy Faire. (Edinburgh University Press, 2011) 102.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] L. Curtis. Jack the Ripper and the London Press<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2002) 245; Leeson. \u201cLost London\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] John Stevenson and Chris Cook. The Slump: Britain in the Great Depression <\/em>(Routledge, 2009) 99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] David Carlson.\n\u201cAutobiography\u201d in Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts from\nNineteenth and Twentieth Century History <\/em>ed. Miriam Dobson, and Benjamin Ziemann. (Routledge,\n2008) 177.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Leeson. \u201cLost London\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] J. Jeffrey Franklin. Spirit Matters: Occult Beliefs, Alternative Religions, and the Crisis of Faith in Victorian Britain <\/em>(Cornell University Press, 2018) 185.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9] Leeson. \u201cLost London\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10] Kaspar von Greyerz.\n\u201cEgo-Documents: The Last Word?\u201d German\nHistory<\/em> 28, no. 3 (2010) 281.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11] Leeson. \u201cLost London\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Burgess, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on the memoirs of an East End detective, Sergeant B. Leeson, for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Emily discusses how we can use personal sources such as this to understand more about social anxieties at the time of their writing. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. Crime in the Victorian period has become significant through such cases as the Whitechapel murders. With the use of personal sources, those involved in the investigations into these murders can provide historians with an individual and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,414,412,413,411,408,409,199,207,410],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning_in_focus","tag-archives","tag-detective-sergeant-b-leeson","tag-frances-coles","tag-hungry-30s","tag-jack-the-ripper","tag-london","tag-memoirs","tag-personal-sources","tag-whitechapel","tag-whitechapel-murders"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/emily-blog-e1548962598606.jpg?fit=620%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-ln","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1333,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions\/1333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}