Legal and Secret Service Career
Anderson began to practise as a barrister. However, in 1865 his father showed him papers relating to the trials of Fenians and he too became involved in the operations against them, becoming the foremost expert on them and operations against them. In 1868, he was called to London, following the murder of a policeman in Manchester during a Fenian jailbreak in September 1867 and the bombing of Clerkenwell Gaol in another rescue attempt three months later. In April 1868 he was attached to the Home Office as adviser on political crime.
However, although Anderson remained in this post, Fenianism became more or less dormant, and to justify his salary he was appointed secretary to several government inquiries. In 1877 he was appointed secretary to the new Prison Commission. In the early 1880s, however, the Fenians began operations again and in 1883 they commenced a bombing campaign in England. Anderson was not particularly effective in combatting them, and in May 1884 he was forced to resign his Home Office post, to be replaced by Edward Jenkinson. In 1886 he was also removed from the Prison Commission.
Read more about this topic: Robert Anderson (Scotland Yard Official)
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