IN March 1886, at the height of his conflict with Jenkinson, Monro toyed with the idea of making ‘secret work’ the province of every Metropolitan officer. As he explained in an internal memo:

By the end of the year, however, the problem with this plan had already become obvious. The entire CID force consisted of a mere 313 officers, working an average of ten to eleven hours a day, at a time when London numbered more than four million. Out of these, fifty-eight constables, twelve sergeants and three inspectors were employed on ‘special duties… in connection with Fenianism’ in London and at ports, leading to a ‘perceptible weakening of the Staff at the Central Office and of the Divisions’.

Despite his ambivalence towards it, Warren had sanctioned an augmentation of the ‘political department’ in December 1886 and by early 1887 the request was finally approved. One first-class and one second-class inspector, four sergeants and twenty constables now joined the select fold of detectives performing ‘services connected with Fenianism within the Metropolitan Police District’. This, however, was not a mere strengthening of Irish Branch and the public building protection corps and as Warren explained, the augmentation was partially ‘intended for the formation of a [new] Special Branch’.

To the extent that its purpose was to fill the void left by ‘Mr. Jenkinson’s Department’, especially his network of spies and informers ‘other than in London’, the new CID Branch had to be very special indeed.