Frederick Porter Wensley

Frederick Porter Wensley, (1865-1949) was Chief constable of the CID at Scotland Yard. Wensley was notable for his long (1888-1929) service, as well a for being among the first to rise all the way from lowly PC to the what was then the top post at the Yard.

Wensley was born in Taunton, and cherished a boyhood dream of joining the police, which he realized in January of 1888 when he was attested as a Police Constable, Warrant number 73224. He was first posted to L Division in Lambeth, then moved to H Division in Whitechapel, where he had some slight involvement in the notorious case of Jack the Ripper. After his promotion to Sergeant, he sought and soon obtained a posting to the CID, where he distinguished himself in a number of investigations, including the notorious gang of Bertha Weiner, as well as the Bloodie Belgium case, in which the only clue to the identity of a woman's torso found wrapped in a parcel was the phrase "Bloodie Belgium" scrawled on a slip of paper, and a laundry mark on the sheet in which the torso had been wrapped.

Hus success in these and other cases gained him a reputation as one of the original "Big Four" of Scotland Yard. In 1912 he was promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, and not long after to Superintendent; in 1925, the rank of Chief constable was re-activated specifically for him. He retired from the force in 1929.

After his retirement, he pursued a career as a private investigator, and played a role in the notorious Stavisky Affair.