In September 1920, former Colne Valley MP and self-styled Socialist revolutionary Victor Grayson walked out of his plush apartment at the Georgian House in London’s St James’s, never to be seen again. Or at least that’s how the story goes. And we have two people to thank for that: 24-year old hotel manageress, Hilda Seager…
Toplis Victim Spicer Had Killed A Man
Was taxi-driver Sidney Spicer the victim of a revenge killing and not Toplis
The Mutiny at Etaples: Manchester Guardian 1930
One of the first full eyewitness accounts of the Mutiny at Etaples published anywhere in the British Press.
New Zealand Press Accounts of the Mutiny
Press in New Zealand had reported on the disturbances at Etaples as early as 1919, when on his retirement from active duty, Lieutenant Colonel George Mitchell boasted of the role he had played in quelling the riots and negotiating better conditions for troops. It was something of an overstatement to say the least, as it…
Secret Terrorist Societies Unearthed – Lloyd’s News May 9th 1920
As Toplis made his getaway north, Lloyd’s Sunday News reported that Scotland Yard were making progress with their investigation into a number of alleged anarchist groups infiltrating the higher echelons of British civil society. Police believed a ‘special order’ had been given by the new Bolshevik leaders in Moscow to ‘foment unrest’ on British Soil…
Percy Toplis Hunt – Tomintoul Outrage
Aberdeen Daily Journal Saturday June 5th 1920 WILLIAMSON OR TOPLIS? PASSES THROUGH ABERDEEN The police are confident that the net is closing round the fugitive “Williamson”, “Toplis” or whatever his name may be. Public interest in the chase is keen, judging from the number and promptitude of the reports coming into the authorities. It has…
Widespread Search for the Tomintoul Fugitive
Aberdeen Journal Aberdeenshire, Scotland, June 4th 1920 Growing Belief He is Toplis. Aberdeenshire Minister’s Strange Story of a Lift No arrest has yet been made in connection with the Tomintoul shooting outrage, but the hue and cry has widely been circulated and the Police of Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are keeping a close watch on all…
Edward T Woodhall – Spies of the Great War Revelations of the Secret Service
The Evening Telegraph, August 23rd 1932 Britain Spied Out from a Barber’s Shop by Edwin T Woodhall, Monocled Mutineer Detective