Who hasn’t
heard of the detective Sherlock Holmes? Conan Doyle probably based the
fictional detective on Jerome Caminada and here is
his grave in Southern Cemetery on the outskirts of Manchester.
Jerome was born in Deansgate in Manchester.
The family was poor and in the 1800s Deansgate was a crucible
of public houses, brothels and houses crammed with many mill workers. It was
the crime bullseye of Manchester. Aged 24 Jerome was
working as an engineer in Manchester but he suddenly left and joined the
police. He zoomed up the ranks and was promoted to sergeant within four years.
Soon this Victorian super-sleuth was a detective.
For the next thirty years he earned the respect of colleagues and
judges. Even the criminals respected him, calling him Detective Jerome as they
couldn’t pronounce his name (Irish mother and an Italian father). They dodged
this pistol-carrying detective when they could but he was like an efficient
machine and put 1,225 criminals in prison and closed about 400 pubs. Even
though he was promoted to inspector many a crim threatened to murder him and he
used his pistol a few times.
It’s thought Sherlock Holmes was based on him as he employed logical
reasoning, forensic science, disguises and his understanding of the criminal
underclass. Soon he was Detective Superintendent. His most famous case was the
Manchester Cab Murder of 1889. He detected the murderer, got him to court then
prison within three weeks of the murder. He wrote two autobiographies in his
life, one when working and one when retired. He hung up his cape aged 55 and
became a private detective, an estate agent and city councillor for Openshaw. At 69 he was badly injured in a bus accident in
Wales. The following year he died at his home in Moss Side as a result of these
injuries.
I couldn’t
find out much about this family life so I’ll get the book, “The Real Sherlock
Holmes” which purports him to be the model for the detective. His wife’s name
is the last one the headstone and I assume the others were their children; the
first three all died as babies.
There were no new flowers at the family grave, only a weathered
wreath. I wondered how many criminals he’d imprisoned lay in the same cemetery.
______________________________________________________________
Looking for the
man who was probably inspired the detective Sherlock Holmes…
Pointing to the
headstone bath in late sunlight