George Smithson

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Research by Joan West

George Smithson, otherwise known as 'Gentleman George' in the underworld, lived for some time in Lacey Green

George Smithson was first brought to my attention by Lily Adams, who lived with her husband Tony in 2 Plum Tree Cottage in Lacey Green. She told me how some of the village lads would meet Smithson and his friend Sykes, at Saunderton Station, to help the two "medical students" carry their "medical stuff" up to Lacey Green. Her husband had been one of the lads. See Tony & Lily Adams

Then George Smithson was brought to my attention by Dennis Claydon, who had discovered the book "Raffles in Real Life", from which I have quoted extracts below.

LEASED TO GEORGE SMITHSON, BURGLAR

Early in 1913 George Smithson ‘Gentleman George’ and his friend ‘Sikes’, freshly out of Borstal, both 21, rented a quiet little house in Lacey Green, later called ‘Malmsmead’ from which to set up a business as burglars, posing as American medical students. They paid three months’ rent in advance of kept on the old gardener and housekeeper.

THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION IS FROM GEORGE SMITHSON’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY “RAFFLES IN REAL LIFE”. Published by Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.

The House. The house itself was an old-fashioned little affair standing in a few acres of its own grounds and well away from the beaten track.  Let the reader visualize a stone-paved study and parlour, one of those great open fireplaces and ingle-nooks supported by ancient oak beams. It was picturesque, low ceilinged, but very draughty. Everything about the place reeked of times gone by. It had a serving-maid’s kitchen over the top of a deep well with a pump in the corner, a dark little buttery, a narrow winding staircase leading to half a dozen quaint little bedrooms, and half panelled walls dating back to the seventeenth century. But is suited us very well. Here we were at last in a place of our own where we could sit down quietly at night and work out our schemes for the future, unseen, unheard, unmolested, with only a dimly burning oil lamp by way of illumination”

The Plan. We were supposed to be American medical students whose hospital work frequently took us to London.   We bought a couple of first - class quarterly season tickets at the local Saunderton Station to take us backwards and forwards, and, so that the police might not discover our hiding place if we were caught, left them in a safe deposit when we took the train from London to the place in the country where we intended to burgle a house. We left Lacey Green with our burglars' outfits - Tools, keys, maps, a rope ladder, a railway guide, gloves and masks and even our supper, securely hidden from the vulgar public gaze in large attache cases."

Found at Lacey Green. The procedure of most of the partnership burglaries while we were at Lacey Green were alike in character. We collected sufficient to enable us to live at the rate of £25 per week, amassing a good wardrobe and a conglomeration of unsaleable stolen property that Sikes would insist upon keeping. When finally we were arrested, this swag led to our being charged with crimes in seventeen different counties." "We were given five years apiece".

Research Note George Smithson became a renowned burglar, sought throughout the land. He spent time in many equally well known prisons.