Dr Robert Anderson, Assistant Chief Constable

Dr Robert Anderson, Assistant Chief Constable

In September 1888, Dr Robert Anderson replaced James Monro as the Assistant Commissioner for Crime at the London Metropolitan Police headquarters at Scotland Yard.

By September 8th, 1888, five homeless women had died after suffering brutal attacks on the streets of Whitechapel.

On February 25th, 38-year-old Annie Millwood; on March 2nd, 45-year-old Emma Elizabeth Smith; on August 7th, 39-year-old Martha Tabram; on August 31st, 43-year-old Mary Ann, or Polly, Nichols; and on September 8th, 47-year-old Annie Chapman.

This meant that by September the press were in full cry demanding action from the police.

Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline returned from Scotland Yard to head up the investigation on the ground in Whitechapel.

Detective Chief Inspector Donald Swanson was relieved of all other duties so he could coordinate the investigation from Scotland Yard.

Robert Anderson replaced James Monroe as the Assistant Chief Constable in charge of crime.

Robert Anderson accepted the position but immediately went to Switzerland for a rest cure.

Robert Anderson came from a different class to that of either Frederick Abberline or Donald Swanson.

He was born May 29 1841 in Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Ireland.

His father, Matthew Anderson, was Crown Solicitor, a distinguished elder in the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and acted as an intelligence officer operating against Irish Republicanism.

Robert Anderson graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1862 and was called to the Irish Bar in 1863. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Trinity College in 1875.

Anderson began to practice as a barrister and became an expert on the Fenians and operations against them.

In 1868, he was called to London and was attached to the Home Office as an adviser on political crime.

Anderson was not very effective in the fight against the Fenian bombing campaign that began in 1883. In May 1884, he was forced to resign from his Home Office post, and Edward Jenkinson replaced him.

However, when Jenkinson resigned in 1887, Anderson was the only man available with experience in anti-Fenian activities, and he was asked to assist James Monro, who was then the Assistant Commissioner in charge of operations dealing with political crime.

Monro did not have a good working relationship with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren, and resigned in 1888, which is when Robert Anderson became Assistant Commissioner.

However, while Home Secretary Henry Mathews accepted Monro’s resignation, he immediately appointed him as head of the Special Branch over which Commissioner Sir Charles Warren had no control.

This obviously did not go down well with Commissioner Warren especially as Anderson and his senior CID officers continued to consult with Monro behind Warren's back, particularly during the Jack the Ripper case, with Matthews's complete connivance.

Anderson retired in 1901.

In 1910, his autobiography was published. In it, he says:

”And if the Police here had powers such as the French Police possess, the murderer would have been brought to justice."

"I will merely add that the only person who had ever had a good view of the murderer unhesitatingly identified the suspect the instant he was confronted with him ; but he refused to give evidence against him.”

"In saying that he was a Polish Jew I am merely stating a definitely ascertained fact."


In his copy of Anderson’s autobiography Donald Swanson wrote:

"...the suspect was sent to Stepney Workhouse and then to Colney Hatch and died shortly afterwards ­ Kosminski was the suspect.”

Click here to read an account of the case against Kosminski.

Robert Anderson also said:

“When the stolid English go in for a scare, they take leave of all moderation and common sense. If nonsense were solid, the nonsense that was talked and written about those murders would sink a Dreadnought.”

His compassion for the victims can be seen in his description of them:

They “belonged to a very small class of degraded women who frequent the East End streets after midnight, in hope of inveigling belated drunkards, or men as degraded as themselves.”

While this would be regarded today as beyond callous, it is likely that it was a common sentiment among Queen Victoria’s subjects, even among the women.

John Stuart Mill’s “On the Subjugation of Women” shows just how deep and widespread misogyny was in the Victorian world of white male supremacy.

It seems reasonable now to treat assumptions made about the victims of the crimes with caution.

For example, Robert Anderson did not know these women, and there is no evidence that the first four victims ever spent their nights “inveigling belated drunkards.”

There is though clear evidence that all four were homeless, and on nights when they did not have their ‘doss money’, they would sleep rough.

Since we know the women were not killed until they were lying on the ground, and they died without a struggle and without making a sound the logical assumption using Occam’s Razor is that they were murdered while they slept.

An assumption that might not sit so easily on the conscience of the average 19th century Christian gentleman than the assumption that some degraded women brought about their own death by inveigling belated drunkards.

Robert Anderson died in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic.