Percy Sillitoe, born in London to humble beginnings, found an unexpected route to education as a choir boy at St. Paul's Cathedral. Singing at Queen Victoria's memorial service marked a poignant early memory. Percy, joined the British South African Police when his voice broke. In the early 1900s, the force patrolled vast, lawless regions in Southern Africa—reminiscent of the Wild West—plagued by tribal and criminal gangs. Sillitoe's journey from choir boy to navigating the volatile territories of Africa encapsulates his transformative path toward a challenging but promising future.
So he's there during the First World War, and at the end of the war, he decided it was time to come back to Britain, the mother country, and seek his fortune in policing in the UK.
And when he lands in Sheffield, He finds it to be an absolute cesspit of organised crime, particularly gangs. So, He gets a grip of Sheffield, a small force, but amongst the gangs that roved about Sheffield at that time were one of the generations of the famous Peaky Blinders.
He's headhunted by various forces, but the force who come to call and say, look, we've got a serious problem here. You look to have all the talents to deal with that. Come and be the Chief Constable of the City of Glasgow Police.
So he sets about undermining the gangs exactly as he's done in Sheffield. He, recruits informants, he places informants, he develops intelligence, and he trains his men.
Percy has plans. not just for Glasgow, but for the whole of Scotland. He wants to modernise the policing of Scotland. More than anything else, he wants to spread the gospel of scientific methods and when body parts are found in a small Scottish borders town his plans swing into action.
You can buy the books mentioned in the podcast by clicking the links below
Tom's Best Selling Book:
Ruxton: The First Modern Murder Paperback Edition
Ruxton: The First Modern Murder Kindle Edition
Simon's Best Selling Book:
The Ten Percent Paperback Edition
The Ten Percent Kindle Edition
About Crime Time Inc.
Crime Time Inc. is hosted by Tom and Simon—two ex-cops with decades of frontline experience and zero tolerance for fluff. Tom, a by-the-book former Deputy Chief Constable from Edinburgh, and Simon, a rule-bending ex-undercover cop from Glasgow, bring sharp insight, dark humour, and plenty of East vs. West banter to every episode.
Whether they’re revisiting cases they worked on, grilling fellow former officers, or picking apart narrated true crime stories, Tom and Simon don’t just talk about crime—they’ve lived it. Real cases. Real cops. Real talk.
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