GUARDED ROYALTY

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 February 1930, Page 18

GUARDED ROYALTY

'yOU would hardly notice him, as he stood a few yards from the King —an inconspicuous, neatly dressed man, with his right hand thrust negligently into his pocket and his left hand holding an umbrella, aud -an air of mild interest on his face, writes a special correspondent of the ‘ ‘‘London livening Ne\V|s. ’ ’ But that right hand was clasping an automatic pistol—a weapon he could whip out of his pocket in a. second — and his eyes, glancing round with such apparent carelessness, were as keen as the eyes of a hawk. For he was Superintendent James Meßrien. And Superintendent Meßrien, who is now about, to retire from his position as head of :Seotlaud Yard’s Special Branch, has been responsible for the Royal Family’s safety for a generation. This tall, strong Irishman, who looks

anything but the conventional detcetiA'e, has done enough other work to make him famous during his 40 years’ service. He lias captured spies; he has had a. death struggle with an anarchist in iSo'ho—he has lived in fear -of his life from Sinn Feiners. ■But it is as the man who guarded Royalty right from the early days of King Edward’s reign that he will be remembered. He had the gift of being unobtrusive. If the King Avas shooting on the moors there AA r a» nothing to single out ■ that quiet figure in shooting clothes ! close by as a detective; at a formal affair the man in silk hat -and morning dress standing among the others was Superintendent Melßrien; in a railway platform he was the least conspicuous onlooker of all. The Prince of Wales, when young and high-spirited, often tried to give him the slip, but Superintendent MeBrien was not to be slipped. At 'Glasgow once the 'Prince tip-toed out of the back ‘door of his hotel but i along the street, like an unnoticed shadow followed Superintendent MeBrien. The Prince went into a cinema; two seats away, watching the big film, was Superintendent Meßrien. He was only once beaten, and that, was not his fault. The car in which he vas following the King southward from the big munition factory at Gretna broke down, i But at 'Carlisle, in another car, he w r as

Detective Who Protected Kings

once more riding calmly behind the King. Superintendent Meßrien, whi at his suburban home lias more present* from Royalty than any other man, could write a book of his adventures as thrilling an anything by Edgar Wallace.

When he was a constable he heard cries of “'Murder” from the Autonomy 'Club in Windmill Street, a haunt of He drew his truncliein, went to the- door, and asked what the fuss was about. Down the stairs rushed a German, armed with a murderous knife. He attacked Constable Meßrien. But the constable struck him a- smashing blow across the arm and the knife went flv-

Constalble Meßrien dragged him into the street and handcuffed him.

He Avas only two years in uniform. Ilis gifts marked him out for work where his brains- could bo used to the full, lie a vas transferred to the C.1.D., and AA r as sent abroad to learn the Avays of the international agffatnr and the anarchist.

He rose quickly, and his dut’es were as A'aried as they could be. One day in the thick of a suffragette trouble'; another at Biarritz with the King; yet another shadowing some suspicious foreigner Avho had turned up in Don don. Then came the Avar —and 1 the spies.

Before the Avar he had draAvn up a list of suspected spies, and Avhen the crisis came he was working for days until they had all been rounded up. 'One of the spies Avas working in Woolwich Arsenal. Another—the righthand man of the notorious Carl Lody— Avas a dentist, and committed suicide in his cell at 'Brixton prison. ■

With Sir Basil Thompson he interrogated many spies. He and Sir Basil questioned Mata Hari, the beautiful woman spy who was afteiward shot by the French.

After the Avar, when the 'Sinn Feir. trouble was at its worst, taro-ats that he Avould be killed came to him by every post. Every day he Avcut for lunch to the same restaurant near Scotland Yard; but he always sat facing the door, and under his napkin laj l- his reA r olver, ready for use. ‘i‘Will they get you?” he was asked. “'They’ll be lucky if they do,” he said.