Weren’t they in Peaky Blinders? 100-year-old rogues’ gallery
THEY would not look out of place in television crime drama series Peaky Blinders.
But the faces staring back at the camera are not fictional characters – they are real-life suspects as snapped for police mugshots.
They feature in an exhibition offering a glimpse into the seedy underbelly of Scottish life more than 100 years ago.
The images of people who faced charges including fraud and pickpocketing are accompanied by transcripts from criminal trials which reveal fascinating details about offenders, their victims and the society that produced them.
Rogues Gallery – Faces of Crime 1870-1917, at General Register House, Edinburgh, is the work of the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
It also aims to provide an insight into the development of policing and detection methods.
Jocelyn Grant, outreach activist at NRS, said: ‘Rogues Gallery demonstrates how much we can learn about people of the past from criminal records and provides an insight into the development of policing and detection methods in Scotland.’
Among the faces featured is 25-year-old James Donovan, born in Mauchline, Ayrshire.
He faced charges of pickpocketing, assault and larceny (theft of personal property) in 1901.
Flat-capped and walrusmoustached Robert Trotter, from Berwickshire, was charged with selling stolen goods as well as housebreaking and theft of sheep.
Bearded William Stewart was arrested for theft in 1874. Lily Barr, 17, from Wishaw, in Lanarkshire, faced a similar charge in 1911.
Thomas Queen, photographed in 1910 when he was 23 years old, was charged with offences, including theft and robbery.
Horace Chapman, who was born in 1851, looks every inch the Edwardian gentleman despite being charged with ‘Stg [thought to be stealing] pictures and false pretenses’. Elizabeth Stewart, photographed in 1873, faced charges for ‘falsehood, fraud and viceful imposition’.
The exhibition also features case papers from the 1878 trial of poisoner Eugène Chantrelle.
He is believed to be the inspiration for the character Dr Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: ‘In the Year of History Heritage and Archaeology, Rogues Gallery throws light on a shadowy side of Scotland’s story.’