The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

A presentation for Haddington’s History Society by Sara Lodge, Professor of nineteenth-century literature and culture at the University of St Andrews, author and regular contributor for the Scotsman, the Times Literary Supplement and the Wall Street Journal.

Many people imagine that women played no part at all in Victorian policing and that women private eyes in the nineteenth century are purely imaginary. Prof Lodge’s talk will reveal the surprising world of the real Victorian female detective. Exploring the lives of women who worked with the police and with private enquiry agencies , it will show how important women were both to law enforcement and to solving personal mysteries. One of these cases took place at Colstoun House, Haddington in 1897…and led to a trial in which the lady detective and her aristocratic employer fought a very public courtroom battle. Reflecting on how much the Victorians enjoyed — as we do today — the spectacle of a feisty, fist-swinging female sleuth in the theatre, She will consider the differences between myth and reality, and why the truth about the Victorian female detective lay hidden for so long.