Taters Chatham

George Henry "Taters" Chatham (3 April 1912 – 5 June 1997) was a British thief and burglar. Born to a middle-class family, he aspired to become a professional footballer but despite a trial at Queen's Park Rangers, nothing came of it. Chatham turned to crime and was first convicted of theft in 1931. By the end of that decade he was burgling the houses of wealthy Londoners, carefully selecting his targets from society magazines. His calm-headedness led to his nickname from the Cockney rhyming slang for cold.

After the Second World War Chatham became more prolific. His crimes included the theft of two jewelled swords, awarded to the Duke of Wellington, from the Victoria & Albert Museum and a jewelled chelengk, awarded to Lord Nelson, from the National Maritime Museum. Chatham gambled away most of the proceeds from his crimes, often in the casino of London gangster Billy Hill. He was part of Hill's gang that carried out the 1952 Eastcastle Street robbery on a Post Office van. In 1957 he began a 30-year association with fellow thief Peter Scott.

Chatham's gambling led him to become increasingly reckless later in his career, though he was a famous cat burglar by the late 1950s and his raids on art galleries were attributed to a sophisticated international gang of art thieves. Chatham remained active late in life carrying out thefts and burglaries well into his 70s; his last crime was an attempted theft from an art gallery at the age of 81.

Early life George Henry Chatham was born in Fulham, London, on 3 April 1912. He was the son of George Chatham, who was then a coffee house waiter, and his wife Jenny (née Hewson). Chatham's father came from a middle-class background and had formerly been a civil engineer. George Henry Chatham aspired to a career as a professional footballer; he played for England Schoolboys and had a trial at Queen's Park Rangers but was not asked to join the team.

In 1948 he committed his most famous crime, the theft of two jewel-encrusted ceremonial swords from the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Chatham became associated with the gangster Billy Hill and often lost large amounts of money at his rigged casino tables. On another occasion Chatham threatened to shoot Hill.

Chatham was imprisoned many times and was said to have had a prison cell named in his honour. During one spell of imprisonment in 1957 he met fellow thief and gambling addict Peter Scott, beginning a 30-year association between the men.

By the late 1950s Chatham was regarded as the most famous cat burglar in London. Together with Scott he stole millions of pounds worth of goods from jewellery stores in Bond Street and art galleries in Mayfair.

Despite his high-profile crimes Chatham lived in poverty in his later years, in a dilapidated ground floor flat in Fulham. At the time of his death it was estimated that he had stolen goods worth £100 million during his criminal career and been sentenced to a total of 35 years' imprisonment.