Talk:Ignatius Paul Pollaky

International Police Gazette

Might be the "Foreign Police Gazette". The sources for this are conflicting. -- Derek Ross | Talk 02:40, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Portrait

Perhaps someone can track this down.

PADDINGTON POLLAKY (12 S. iii. 509 ; iv. 31, 88). "In The Figaro (London) of Jan. 28, 1874, is a coloured portrait of Pollaky. It is by way of being a caricature a large head on a small body but the face is evidently a portrait, not at all a caricature. He is listening at a door, notebook in hand ; below is a shadow of the head and shoulders of a policeman. The signature of the artist is Faustin (? F. Austin). This portrait is one of a series called 'Figaro's London Sketch-Book of Celebrities.' It is not included in the letterpress, but is pasted on the front page. The editor of The Figaro was James Mortimer, who also 'conducted' a monthly magazine called The London Sketch-Book.

In the said number of The Figaro is a short article eulogizing Pollaky as 'a very distinguished detective.'"

It would be nice to have the picture -- and the article -- if anyone can find them. I would guess that the British Library would be the place. The artist is actually Faustin Betbeder, a French political cartoonist. -- Derek Ross | Talk 02:56, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Picture available online at Ohio State University Library without the article unfortunately. Also a newspaper report on one of Pollaky's cases before he started working for himself. It appears that he was working for the police in late 1860. And a Times missing person advert from 1869 reproduced in the Brisbane Courier as a news item in 1870. -- Derek Ross | Talk 17:44, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Not working for the police. See "Prior Employment" section below. -- Derek Ross | Talk 21:29, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

As an aside it would be nice to have an article on the London Figaro. We quote it in quite a few places on Wikipedia but as yet we don't have an article. This may partly be because there appears to be little information available (on the Internet at anyrate) on its publishing history, format, etc.

Hey ho, I got fed up waiting for someone else to provide an article, so I wrote it myself... -- Derek Ross | Talk 05:39, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Literary mentions

He was also mentioned in the novel, "Rupert Godwin", by the Victorian popular novelist, Mary Elizabeth Braddon. -- Derek Ross | Talk 00:22, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

And in "Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne" by John Ashton. -- Derek Ross | Talk 01:07, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

And in another of WS Gilbert's musical plays, No Cards, this one written with German-Reed providing the music rather than Sullivan.

And in The French Lieutenant's Woman. This indicates that Pollaky had several detectives working for him, although that may be artistic licence on the part of John Fowles. -- Derek Ross | Talk 18:11, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

It wasn't artistic licence. -- Derek Ross | Talk 05:42, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Cases

Another of his cases that made the papers: in the Cork Examiner, 25 March 1863, there is mention of his investigation -- on behalf of the London Society for the Protection of Young Females -- of a scam in which young women were lured abroad by promise of governess work only to find that it was actually prostitution work. -- Derek Ross | Talk 00:51, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Kate Summerscale notes in footnote 236 to chapter 18 of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher that

In 1866, according to The Times, he broke a ring of white slave traders who were kidnapping young women in Hull and selling them in Germany.

Not sure if it's related to the case above. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:20, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

According to Willmer A. Hoerr, in his article "The Case of the Archetypical Agent," Baker Street Journal, 18, No. 1 (March 1968), 10-12.

Because he [Ignatius Paul Pollaky, the second-best private detective in Victorian England] was very close-mouthed and lacked a literary friend, we shall probably never know just what his exploits were, but quite possibly he too had his Gorgianos, his Milvertons, and his McFarlanes.

How unfortunate. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:27, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Not exactly a case but The Illustrated Photographer of May 29th, 1868 refers to a great little story about Pollaky on page 207. -- Derek Ross | Talk 03:42, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Pollaky Poem

This is a rather interesting reference which perhaps gives some more insight into Pollaky's position within Victorian Society. It's from a satirical piece published in 1876.

"Heard at the club last night," says Sir Verdant, as soon as Hard Hunt has finished his story, "that our mutual friend the confidential adviser of deceived husbands and neglected and abandoned wives, the great genius of intrigue and the pet confidante and acknowledged detective-general of the aristocracy, has got his hands fearfully full just now."

"I'm awfully sorry to hear it," says Cross. "If the aristocracy of this world isn't speeding to perdition with the haste of an express, then I'm not the Home Secretary and Benjamin isn't Prime Minister. Now it's a ballet-girl, now it's a row about a yacht race, now a dispute about the precedence of three princesses, now a titled lady left to die in an obscure lodging-house — it's fearful, it really is."

"Talking about the great detective-general of the aristocracy," says Icano'er Power, "I've got an MS. poem of Swinburne's about me in my pocket, called 'The Lord of Intrigue.' I haven't read it yet. Shall I read it to you ?"

Having nothing else to do, and feeling ourselves at the same time growing very languid under the influence of the smoky clouds which fill the room from our Havanas, and the fumes which ascend into our brains from rather free libations of '34, we acquiesce with a general feeling of great helplessness.

Pollaky sat in his oaken chair.

Carte de visite and letter lay there,

Princely coronet, lordly crest.

Many a mystery, many a quest,

With missive and billet of lesser degree,

In sooth an extraordinary company;

And they seemed to ask, oh, unravel me;

Never, I ween,

Was a subtler seen,

Concerned in divorce, or elopement, or league.

Than love's autocrat, Pollaky, lord of intrigue.

In and out

Through the motley rout,

The Lord of Intrigue goes hunting about,

Here and there.

Like a dog in a fair,

Through flights and divorces,

Elopements and curses.

Through a lady's love and a husband's grudge,

Proud as a Cardinal, sharp as a Judge;

And he smiles in the face

Of the scrawl of his Grace,

With a satisfied look, as if he would say,

"Oh, the duchess must fall in our trap to-day."

While his clients with awe

As such schemes they saw.

Said, "Pollaky's sharper than Hades, you know."

Never, I ween,

Was a subtler seen,

Concerned in divorce, or elopement, or league.

Than love's autocrat, Pollaky, lord of intrigue.

"I hear it rumoured", says Sir Verdant, "that Sir James Hannen's Court promises to be the scene this season of an unusually plentiful crop of causes celebres. A lot of exceedingly ugly rumours, I hear, are going the round of the clubs with, of course, the usual club exaggerations. The army, I understand, true to its ancient traditions, figures very prominently, and I also hear something far from savoury about a remarkably clever man in Her Majesty's navy. But, nous verrons, eh, Benjamin ?"

"Nous verrons" repeats Benjamin, with a knowing nod of his head.

From Benjamin D - His little dinner.

Interesting to say the least. Even includes a cartoon of Pollaky. -- Derek Ross | Talk 07:22, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Prior employment

In "The Great Crime of 1860", a book on the Road Hill House murder, there is an indication that during 1860 Pollaky was working as a detective officer in Field's private inquiry office. This predates the period when Pollaky was working for himself. Charles Frederick Field was one of the original London detectives (and a Bow Street Runner according to Charles Dickens) and after retiring from the Metropolitan police force, ran his own private detective agency from 1853 until 1865. -- Derek Ross | Talk 21:05, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Page 78 of the The London Confederates by John D Bennett sheds a little more light on Pollaky's early employment. It seems that he latterly worked for Field as superintendent of the foreign department. He could not have joined Field's office before its establishment in 1852 but according to his Times advert of 23 January 1862 he had been working as some form of enquiry agent for 12 years -- ie since he arrived in Britain -- presumably for most of that time with Field. The book also notes that, although hired by Sanford to spy on Confederate agents in June 1861, he was dropped by January 1862, despite some success, because of internal rivalry between Union personnel, some of whom had set up a separate surveillance system. Also it is clear from the text that Pollaky had a team of employees working on this. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:05, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Disapproval

Not everyone approved of this new-fangled private detective nonsense. See page 404 of All the Year Round for 1863 where you can read an entertaining diatribe on the evils of Pollaky and his minions. -- Derek Ross | Talk 21:47, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

More recently, it occurs to me that this disapproval might not be unconnected to the facts that All The Year Round had Dickens as its editor; that Dickens was a friend of Field; that Field had recently lost Pollaky, one of his best employees; and that the employee had set up in competition to Field. -- Derek Ross | Talk 19:39, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Another Marriage

A copy of the Association Medical Journal of 5 July 1856 contains a notice of the marriage of Ignatius Paul Pollaky of Presburg to Julia S Devonald on 20 May 1856. This is undoubtedly our man but since he was later married to Mary Ann Hughes in 1861, it raises a question or two... -- Derek Ross | Talk 16:43, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Ah, how sad! Julia died in 1859 according to The Gentleman's Magazine. Her middle name was Susana and the death probably occurred in late September or early October. -- Derek Ross | Talk 17:00, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Alzheimer's

Here is an excellent short article on Pollaky from the Melbourne Argus of 9th June, 1934 which among other interesting anecdotes describes his deterioration and death. A modern reader cannot help but think that he suffered from Alzheimer's syndrome at the end of his life. This article contains a lot of very good information which we don't have in our current article. However it is a newspaper piece and so may not be the most reliable of reliable sources. It gets his nationality wrong for instance. However it's well worth a read for anyone interested in Pollaky. -- Derek Ross | Talk 19:22, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Reminiscences

In 1921, Fitzroy Gardner published the following as part of his memoir, Days and Ways of an Old Bohemian, on page 235.

My first acquaintance with detective work was, when I was twenty-four, under the tuition of the then best-known detective in the world, Ignatius Pollaky, a Pole, who acted in England for several foreign governments, and was often consulted by Scotland Yard. He spoke and wrote six languages fluently and knew intimately some of the most dangerous criminals of four countries. He had an office on Paddington Green; hence "Pollaky of Paddington Green", a music-hall skit of the old popular ditty, "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green".

I happened to make his acquaintance in connection with the abduction (by a man holding an important Government position) of one of my mother's servants, and, finding that I could speak German fluently and some French, he made use of me in a difficult matter in which foreigners were concerned. I gave my services enthusiastically, and have never forgotten the lessons which Pollaky taught me in our conversations.

Thirty years later I was anxious to obtain certain information about dangerous Russian and Polish refugees in this country, and I paid a visit to Pollaky, who had retired from business and was living at Brighton. I had no idea that he had recently developed a form of insanity. He was obsessed with the idea that some of the men whose arrest he had effected in years gone by were trying to murder him; moreover, he had lost his memory, and not only did he not recognize me or my name, but, when he came to the door in answer to the bell, he threatened me with a revolver, and I returned to London without the desired information. Pollaky died about three years ago.

Further details of this case appeared in the sequel, More reminiscences of an old Bohemian, in which he wrote:

I have seen many people go down in the world, and a few who have with marked success lived down an unfortunate past. A lady relative of mine had a remarkably pretty nurse for her baby, daughter of a highly respectable tradesman. One night the girl disappeared from the house, taking all her belongings with her, and my services were enlisted to trace her. At that time there were sensational stories in the newspapers about men decoying good-looking servant girls in London and taking them to houses of ill-fame on the Continent. With the aid of Ignatius Pollaky, the then famous international detective that started my acquaintance with him I traced her, not to any foreign country, but to a boarding-house near Westbourne Grove, where she was living with a man occupying a high position in the Civil Service. She was sent back to her people, and neither my relative or I ever heard of her again until some fifteen years later, when I discovered her, as wife of a man of considerable means and mixing in quite good society ; incidentally she was hostess at a big function at which the late King, when Prince of Wales, was present. She died two years ago.

The more I learn about Pollaky, the more I think that Conan Doyle used him as a model. -- Derek Ross | Talk 03:47, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Miscellaneous claims

I learned about the use of Pollaky's surname as an exclamation from The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang by Eric Partridge. Or possibly one of the other slang dictionaries. The reference to chess in the Public Room of the Brighton Pavilion came, as I recall, from the notes on the comic opera, Patience, which can be found at Boise University G&S website but may also be corroborated from the 1922 book, Gilbert & Sullivan opera: a history and a comment by Henry Mackinnon Walbrook which is available in Snippet view on Google Books. As for Pollaky's children, my list is based on census returns from 1871 and 1881 which turned up in my original Google searches. These showed the household members for 13 Paddington Green. Can't find them right now though. -- Derek Ross | Talk 18:52, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

In 1881 Ignatius P. Pollaky (b.1828) was living with wife, Mary A. Pollaky (b. 1841), daughter, Mina/Mima (Maria) Pollaky (b. 1865), daughter Rose C. Pollaky (b. 1868) and daughter, Mabel M. Pollaky (b. 1870). His son, Francis/Francesco H.I. Pollaky (b. 1866), must already have left home. According to the UK Census returns at ancestry.co.uk anyway. -- Derek Ross | Talk 20:02, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

The gravestone below says that his daughter was Minna Mary Ann Pollaky and his son was Francis Hughes James Pollaky. -- Derek Ross | Talk 05:24, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Did you know that if you go to the following web address: http://odin-detective.uaprom.net/a24159-chastnye-detektivy-chast.html and do a google translate on the page there is some interesting speculation about Pollaky, including these unsubstantiated and unreferenced sentences. "Future private detective Ignatz Polak was born in 1828 in the family of Franz Josef Polak, a resident of the town of Pressburg (now Bratislava) on the border of Hungary and Austria. For whatever reason, he was in London - is unknown, its modern descendants believe he fled to London from poverty in 1850." I wondered if there is any further information about his possible background and where this suggested information about his parentage originates. Bkesselman (talk) 09:17, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Grave

Well done, Tabatha! For contributing this picture of Paddington Pollaky's gravestone. It has some useful info on it about the deaths of his wife and children including children that I did not know about. But Francis Pollaky actually died in 1899, not 1889. According to the South African Press anyway. -- Derek Ross | Talk 04:46, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Office

And a picture of his office/home in Paddington Green by Jamie Barras as it looked in 2007. Thanks, Jamie! -- Derek Ross | Talk 04:56, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Nationality

Near the beginning of the article, it says that he became British in 1861. Near the end it says he became British in 1914. Can anyone shed some light on this? Otto von B. (talk) 12:14, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Well spotted, Otto. The first bit is supposed to mean that he married in 1861 and (at some later unspecified date) became a citizen. I wrote it before I knew when he became a citizen. I added the second bit once I discovered when he became a citizen but forgot to take the first bit out. I will do so now. Thanks. -- Derek Ross | Talk 18:25, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you!Otto von B. (talk) 10:45, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Pollaky applied for British Citzenship in 1862 but was refused. See Wikipedia article for updated info.Bkesselman (talk) 16:57, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Pronunciation of Pollaky

I found this in Passing English of the Victorian Era by J. Redding Ware, Routledge, London 1909.

Further Info

Thought you might be interested to know that my biography of Pollaky will be published in Feb 2015.Bkesselman (talk) 15:26, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Excellent! -- Derek Ross | Talk 20:02, 22 December 2014 (UTC)