Scrapbook of the lawyer Sir William Charles Croker ('the Sherlock Holmes of the insurance world'), containing caricatures and memoranda by him, photographs, newspaper and magazine cuttings, seating plans, invitations and other ephemera.

Crocker made his name in the 1930s investigating and prosecuting insurance fraud (and in particular the activities of the Leopold Harris arson gang, convicted mainly through his efforts in 1933). In 2000 it emerged that at the outbreak of the Second World War he served as Deputy Director of MI5, despite being a 'Nazi sympathiser opposed to war with Hitler [...] active in Truth, a journal openly supportive of Sir Oswald Mosley' (Independent, 30 July 2000). The folio scrapbook and its contents are lightly aged and in good condition. Most of the items are attached to 49 pp on 29 of its leaves, with a number loosely inserted. There are five typed memoranda by Crocker, give accounts of: his signing the Roll of Knights Batchelor at the College of Arms, 27 January 1955;. a dinner in his honour (and those of Alfred Hitchcock and Gordon Russell) at the Arts Club, 19 April 1955; a dinner party held by Sir John Wilson, 24 May 1955; a lunch party at the flat of Mary Duchess of Roxborough [sic], 20 June 1955; a joint part by Jimmy Joyce of Blackwood Hodge and 'Buckmaster (who owns Bucks Club)', 28 October 1955. The scrapbook also contains eight caricatures by Crocker (including Elmer Robinson, Mayor of San Francisco, and various gastronomes, 6 on the back of one programme), and thirty-two photographs (all but four in black and white), with subjects including 'W. C. C. on entering Buckingham Palace to be dubbed. 8/2/55. Taken by J. W. T. C.', 'March 1955. The documents in Rex v Wilcox & others', nine photographs of 'W. C. C. and H. E. Gumbel. Hamburg 9/5/56', and several pictures taken on skiing holidays, including 'Prince and Princess Beauvau Craon at Rhodania Hote, Crans S/sierre, Valais, Switzerland. 18/2/55', together with a picture of the 'Meeting of Provincial Presidents and Secretaries 19/5/55'. Also around twenty newspaper and magazine cuttings relating to Crocker (sources ranging from The Times to the Glasgow Herald), mainly reporting his knighthood. For example the Daily Sketch, 1 January 1955, heads its report on the New Year's Honours 'SIR SHERLOCK'. It carries a photo of Crocker, and begins 'Among those knighted is 67-year-old William Charles Crocker, former president of the Law Society, once known as the Sherlock Holmes of the insurance world.' Four cuttings relate to Crocker's surprise wedding to the American Ruth Boswell. There are also two printed certificates from the Law Society, both signed by the President and Secretary, the first extending congratulations to Crocker on his knighthood, the second accepting his resignation after twenty-three years from the Society's council. Also a typed document, signed by 25 members of Crocker's staff at 42 Gracechurch Street, expressing congratulations on his knighthood. Other items include seating plans for the 'RA Dining Club "Whitebait Dinner" 12/5/55'; the British Drug Houses Limited Annual General Meeting, 6 June 1955; invitations to Law Society, insurance company and other business dinners (for example the Salvage Association Centenary Banquet, and the annual dinner of the Federation of Coated Macadam Industries), City of London Court Dinners and Livery Banquets. According to the New DNB Crocker was 'one of the first within the Law Society to see the value of publicity', and the scrapbook contains invitations and other items from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Also programmes for a dinner held by the Institute of Journalists for the Australian Test Cricket Team, 27 April 1956; for Glyndebourne, the City Pickwick Club, the Australian Club; Paternosters Club; Reunion des Gastronomes. Also menus, air tickets and other travel ephemera.