GREAT CHIEFS OF SCOTLAND YARD

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

GREAT CHIEFS OF SCOTLAND YARD

GUARDIAN OF CROWNED HEADS, 'ffifl

ANXIETY OF “OFFICIAL SURVEILLANCE"—“McBRIEN OF THE YARD”— DANGERS OF HOMICIDAL MANIACS—CAPTURE OF TRAITORS AND SPIES—PRINCE OF WALES’ BOYISH DASH TO FREEDOM—BUT THE “SHADOW” FOLLOWED ON. (By EDWIN T. WOODHALL, formerly of the Secret Service and C.l.D.—Copyright, All Bights Reserved.) [NO. ll.]

One would hardly notice him as lie stood a few yards from the King of England, an inconspicuous, neatly dressed man with his right hand thrust negligently into his pocket, his left hand holding an umbrella, and an air of mild interest on his face. But that right hand was clasping an automatic pistol—a weapon he could whip out of hit pocket in a second, provided the emergency arose. This was “ Mcßrien of the Yard ” on

“ official surveillance,’* an expert in the dangerous work of guarding Royalty, foreign potentates, presidents, Cabinet Ministers, and other exalted personages.

In conjunction with the late Sir Patrick Quinn, whom he succeeded as chief, Superintendent Mcßrien has been responsible for the safety of the English Royal Family for many years. This tall, strong, handsome Irishman, great favourite of the late King Edward* also of the present Prince of Wales, has done enough work to make him famous .during his 40 years of service. He has captured traitors, homicidal political maniacs, and spies; he lias bad a death struggle with an anarchist in feolio; he has t'ougnt for his life in the pre-war Russian Ninilist and Italian revolutionary clubs of the East End and Clcrkenwell, London, when the life of a police detective (.once discovered as such) was not ■Worth a moment’s purchase; he has lived in fear of his life from the Secret Service of Sinn Reiners.

These are only a few of the experiences that have occurred to him through a hffe crowded with intrigue and danger. He lias a gift of being unobtrusive, of merging into the background. Should the 1 rmce of Wales go shooting on the moors, there was nothing to single out that quiet figure in rough tweeds with him as a detective; at a dinner party who would suspect thcf tail, well-groomed gentleman in evening dress chatting with a duchess as “ Mae of the yard”? Many a time have I seen him waiting on railway station platforms to receive some visiting Royal personage, and here was least conspicuous of all. He was the man who pored over the newspapers on the bookstall. He was the man who read a book on a scat. He was the man whose eyes were fastened on the departure board or the time-table, yet all the time lie was on the watch.

Danger of Homicidal Maniacs. The greatest danger to the distinguished persons are Jiomicidal maniacs, fanatics with some fancied grudge, and the guardian must ever watch for such, as the mildest of men may suddenly go raving mad when the object of their hatred appears. McBrien has handled several risky situations of this kind. He was guarding H.R.H.the Prince of Wales at Glasgow, in the days when the Prince was young and highspirited and delighted in giving his keeper M a chase. The Prince slipped out of the back door of his hotel, and laughed as he made good his escape (so he thought). Yet when he sat down in a cinema soon after a tall figure came down the gangway and took up a seat behind liim—Mcßrien on the job! He was only once beaten. That was not his fault. A car in which he was following the King southward from a big munition factory at Gretna Green broke down. »The King’s car travelled on. Nearby the scene pf the breakdown was a military aerodrome. Mcßrien ran as fast as he could to the hangars, explained to the flight commander, and within ten minutes he was on his way by aeroplane. At Luton lie landed, hired another motor ear. and when the two Royal cars passed through that city he joined them and ■travelled, on to the Royal residence. In the light of present times it may be interesting to recount the famous superintendent’s past association with the late Russian Royal Family. The ill-fated Czar and Czarina, as also the little prince and his sisters, were all under his charge when they stayed at Osborne. Isle of Wight, in the Royal residence of the late Queen Victoria. Their supervision was a matter of great anxiety to the superintendent, as the Russian revolutionary movement in England at the time was of formidable size and a growing menace. Mcßrien had his spies in their camps. He learned of an attempt to kidnap one of the Russian Imperial Family, and doubled the guard, never leaving them unguarded bj - night or day. Prior to his departure, the Czar personally called the superintendent to his quarters and thanked him sincerely. ‘‘Superintendent, you have rendered the House of Romanoff a great service. So long as the Russian Royal Family exists you will always remain a cherished memory.’* Favourite y/ith King and Queen. Mcßrien has guarded more royalty, with the exception of Sir Patrick Quinn, than any living man. He was in great demand with the late President of the United States, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, on his V’isils, and with our present King and Queen he was always a great favourite. Mcßrien worked hand-in-glove with Sir Basil Thompson before and during the Great War, and was one of the first secret service men to compile a list of spies for the great “round-up” of August, 1014. One of the spies he caught was working in

Woolwich Arsenal. Another, the righthand man of the notorious Carl Lody

was a dentist and committed suicide in his cell at Brixton prison. With Sir Basil Thompson he interrogated many spies, and was with Sir Basil when he questioned Mata Ilari, the beautiful woman spy who was afterwards shot by the French.

He was often in regular attendance on King Edward and the late Queen Alexandra; in fact, lie was with the late monarch on his last trip to Biarritz. Humour there has been in his life, too. lie laughs even now when you can get him talking of the Suffragettes, when frantic and frenzied women agitators bombarded policemen and politicians with bad eggs and soot in a crazy endeavour to get the vote for women. They never knew

it, these agitators, but they owe a good deal to Mcßrien. He told his men to “handle them gently,” and thus saved them epusiderable ignominy.