Colonel Mavrogordato
Full name: Colonel Theodoros Etienne "Mavro" Mavrogordato
Lifespan: (1861 Turkey - 1914 London)
Occupation: Detective
Parents: Stephen Mavrogordato (1808-1872) + Alice Frances "Fanny" Sarell (1835 Constantinople - 1887)
(Most of the biography is quoted directly from Rosenthal).
His parents were wealthy and lived in a palatial building on the top of the hill at Therapia, on the European side of the Bosphorus. He grew up in Therapia and Constantinople along side his brothers and sisters.
Theodore was living in Nicosia in Cyprus by the mid 1880s. It was here that he met Ethel Kenworthy (1861 England - 1919 England), the daughter of James and Maria Kenworthy whom he married in 1886. Four years later, they had their only child, a daughter, Frances Vivian Mary "Vidie" (1890 Cyprus - 1970 Guernsey).
Vidie married Guy Carleton-Jones (1888 - ?) in 1909 - a London-born barrister and Johannesburg mining engineer. She married twice more: to Eric William Eller (1918, London) and Guy Carleton Jones (1929, London).
When Disraeli set up a civil service on the newly annexed island of Cyprus, Mavrogordato was one of the earliest recruits. Though he was only 20 at the time, the authorities noticed his exceptional keen wits and efficiency. The trim, soldierly young man was drafted into the Department of Justice and at 22 promoted to the responsible job of Assistant Inspector of Military Police.
Mavrogordato was famous throughout Cyprus and was forthwith promoted to inspector. At 34, in 1895, he was commandant of the police and of the main prison at Nicosia. Simultaneously he was promoted to Local Commandant, Governor of Prisons and Deputy Coroner.
The Boer War began in 1899 and Lord Milner, as High Commissioner for the Queen, had to provide a police service for those parts of the Boer Republics already in British hands. In many areas, particularly on the Rand, the position had got out of hand. Hundreds of professional criminals, particularly from America and the Continent, had followed in the wake of the troops. Sandbagging was prevalent: so were assaults, rapes, robberies, forgeries and most other offences. A new and desperate type of crook had made his appearance, to whom shooting and stabbing came naturally.
"We need a first-class man and one who has a cosmopolitan outlook,” Milner cabled to Whitehall, and, on November 4, 1901, Mavro was picked for the job. He arrived from Cyprus and immediately things began to happen. In the warrens of Ferreirastown and Vrededorp, City and Suburban and Prospect Township, the news of the ruthless new officer quickly got about.
Major Mavrogordato took over an office at Fordsburg but was soon transferred to Marshall Square, where, under Colonel E. M. Showers, he organised a C.I.D. staff. He taught his men that entirely new method of detection - fingerprint work - and insisted on pistol-shooting practice.
Promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police, he was regarded as the obvious future chief of his department. The fingerprint system which he had introduced was regarded as a model all over the world and is still used today. His collections of relics were likewise famous.
Soon after Union Mavrogordato’s health began to fail. His family became very anxious and persuaded him to go to England for treatment. He arrived in March, 1913, but almost immediately took to his bed. Still in his prime, at the early age of 52, “ Mavro” passed away - on July 29 of the same year.
- Shovel and Sieve. c.1959. Rosenthal, E. George Allen and Unwin: London.
- Levantine Heritage - The Sarells of Constantinople.
- Geneanet
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