A century-old police ledger that includes a mugshot of a one-time suffragette and anti-war campaigner convicted of conspiring to kill the prime minister goes underneath the hammer.
Alice Wheeldon was a girls’s rights campaigner who opposed the First World War.
Her face is proven gazing from the pages of the 500-page guide, alongside black and white images of others convicted of a bunch of offences between 1890-1920.
Mrs Wheeldon, of Derby, was convicted on the Old Bailey of plotting to kill David Lloyd George in 1917, throughout the conflict, and was jailed for 10 years.
But the document confirmed she was discharged from HMP Aylesbury simply months later – on the finish of 1917 – on the request of Mr Lloyd George himself.
The spell in jail seems to have taken its toll on her well being, with a later observe recorded underneath her mugshot within the ledger in daring purple ink: “Died 21.2.19”.
She was convicted in March 1917 alongside her daughter Winnie Mason, a faculty instructor, and son-in-law Alfred Mason, a chemist, who’re additionally recorded within the ledger.
Mr Wheeldon took in a person going by the identify Alex Gordon, who claimed to be a conscientious objector however was truly a British spy and his proof concerning the supposed homicide plot was offered in court docket – with out cross-examination – throughout her trial.
Despite the convictions, using Gordon noticed the federal government questioned about its strategies in utilizing an agent provocateur.
Just weeks after the trial, the intelligence division to which Gordon belonged was shut down, whereas the agent was despatched overseas.
After a latest marketing campaign for justice by Mrs Wheeldon’s kin, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) mentioned though the bid to re-examine the case had benefit, the case was too previous to justify the expense.
However, in its choice, the CCRC mentioned: “The submissions identified in the application may raise a real possibility that these convictions would be overturned.”
The ledger was saved from a skip by a then serving police officer throughout a clear-out at an previous station in St Mary’s Gate, Derby, greater than 40 years in the past, and is now being put up for public sale by his son.
There is a blue plaque honouring Mrs Wheeldon within the metropolis and she or he has a star on its stroll of fame.
Jim Spencer, of Hansons Auctioneers, mentioned the pictures and particulars recorded for greater than 500 different criminals inside the ledger had been an perception into society on the time.
“The overwhelming feeling for me is quite tragic, with petty thefts being committed by desperate people living in poverty,” he mentioned.
“I just get a sense of some very difficult lives in this book.”
The ledger goes underneath the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers’ library public sale on 19 October, with an estimate of between £2,000-£3,000.
Source: information.sky.com”