Gerard Van Helden
Eventually he was promoted to Superintendent of the Birmingham City Police Detectives Department where his crime solving continued until his untimely death.
Gerard Jacob Van Helden was educated at a boarding school in Turnhout, Belgium, where he learnt English, French and German languages.
[8] Gerard Van Helden joined the City of Birmingham Police Force as a Constable 4th Class on 19 April 1871 and was given the Warrant number 4595.
As Van Helden became more involved in criminal detection he needed a Policeman as a uniformed presence and it appears he often chose Frank Richardson who was climbing the promotion ladder as he was.
Gerard Van Helden's experiences in office were well reported in the local newspaper The Birmingham Post as were Alfred Richardson's.
Alfred Richardson climbed the promotion ladder very quickly in the late 1800s and achieved the post of the Chief Constable of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire[16] and later the larger police force of Halifax, West Yorkshire.
His first important case was a Criminal Investigation by the Jockey Club of England which was entered for a race at the town of nearby Wolverhampton.
In another case which caught the public attention he regularly secreted himself in a small cupboard on the premises of a Birmingham jeweller who had often been burgled.
[19] Another very high-profile case involved the manager of a large bank who slipped out of England in 1883 and went to France with Gerard Van Helden a few hours behind him.
The man then boarded a boat intending to flee to South America but Van Helden was able to apply for his extradition back to England using some rather unorthodox methods.
Hon Joseph Chamberlain the Birmingham MP,[24]when he was Colonial Secretary, and he went with him on his eastern tour, which included Constantinople, Athens, and most of the islands in the Greek Archipelago.
[26] In the late 1890s Gerard Van Helden turned his attention towards a prominent bogus company promoter who was later charged with negotiating many worthless cheques.
[29] In the spring and summer of 1901, Gerard Van Helden undertook a gruelling journey to Ireland and the north and west of England on behalf of The Force.
[30] Gerard Van Helden who had been born in the Netherlands and educated at boarding school in Belgium, started working for his father when he first came to England.
In consequence of the sudden death of Detective Superintendent Van Helden, the Birmingham police sports, which was to have been held on 13 June, was postponed on an order from the Chief Constable.
'[36] The Funeral: The distance from Gerard Van Helden's residence in the centre of Birmingham to Lodge Hill Cemetery was six miles.
Starting at 2pm it was long and impressive according to The Police Review newspaper[37] had an article which read: "The funeral of the late Detective Supt.
There was a long procession from the deceased's residence, in which several Chief Constables from neighbouring cities and districts attended, and a large body of police.
Members of the Detective Department wore sombre black, and there were contingents from the Birmingham Fire Brigade and from the Aston and Kings Heath Police.
Rafter), Chief Constable Richardson Hereford,[38] Bennel (Kidderminster) and Charsley (Coventry), all of whom were formerly in the Birmingham force … A number of Councillors were present.
"[40] Gerard Van Helden was buried at Lodge Hill Cemetery, Selly Oak, Birmingham alongside his son.
