[1] He achieved particular notoriety following an investigation into corruption in Nottingham City Council in an incident which became known as "The Popkess Affair" due to the false suspicion that he had leaked information.
Popkess attended Officer Training School in his youth and on the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted in the Rhodesia Regiment as a lieutenant.
[2] Whilst being treated the fighting in South West Africa ended, so following his recovery Popkess caught a mail steamer to England, where he enlisted in the North Staffordshire Regiment only to be posted to the Reserve Battalion stationed on Guernsey for five months.
Not wishing to idle, Popkess wrote to the War Department and was ordered to escort a reinforcements convoy to East Africa.
Following the war he was posted as a Black and Tan as an intelligence officer and liaison with Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), where on one occasion he set up an ambush intending to capture or kill IRA figure Eamon de Valera.
[1] Popkess got wind of this objection and went directly on an unannounced visit to the Home Secretary John Clynes to plead his case.
It is also possible his experience dealing with disorder in Ireland favoured his appointment in the notoriously troublesome city of Nottingham.
He was well known to discriminate in favour of tall officers, actively head-hunting those of significant stature to join the force, most notably two former Grenadier Guardsmen who had been pallbearers at the Funeral of King George VI – Tug Wilson and Geoffrey Baker.
Popkess was almost alone in denying that the incident was racially motivated, with his reasoning being that "The coloured people [sic] behaved in an exemplary way by keeping out of the way.
In 1959 a prospective Liberal candidate for local elections made a complaint to the Nottingham City Police of corruption by some of the incumbent Labour council's leading figures following the receiving of gifts and an all-expenses paid trip to Soviet East Berlin at the invitation of a company bidding to build a planetarium in Nottingham.
Popkess referred the investigation to the Metropolitan Police but news of it was leaked a few days prior to key local municipal elections.
Several members of the Watch Committee including Alderman Wigman and Councillor Butler were subjects of this investigation so Popkess refused.
[9] He retired from Nottingham City Police in December 1959 and moved to Torquay, Devon, where he remained until his death in April 1967.