Thomas Holmes

Thomas Holmes (25 January 1846 – 26 March 1918) was a British police-court missionary, philanthropist, author and, upon retirement, secretary of the Howard Association (now the Howard League for Penal Reform). His career as a missionary made him "a well-known figure, universally respected", in particular his interventions and friendship with the notorious Jane Cakebread. He wrote several books on criminology and London's "criminal underworld".

From the age of twelve to thirty-three, he was an iron-moulder like his father; a serious accident in 1877 forced him to find a less physical job. His friends advised him in 1885 to apply for the role of police-court missionary in Lambeth, and he was appointed. In 1889 he was transferred to North London police court.

Career as a police-court missionary Police-court missionaries were the fore-runner to probation officers, as their initial function was to "reclaim drunkards" and subsequently other offenders too. This developed into a system of releasing offenders on the condition that they would stay in touch with the missionary and accept their guidance. Police-court missionaries were managed by voluntary societies such as the Church of England Temperance Society, who would appoint missionaries to the London Police Courts, until the National Probation Service was set up in 1907.

Holmes worked as a missionary for twenty years, and dealt with thieves, drunkards, prostitutes, and other criminals. He wrote extensively about his experiences in Pictures and Problems From London Police Courts (1900), including his first day attending the police court and the extensive suffering on display: Even as I sit and write, it is all before me and around. I hear again the horrible speech and diverse tongues. I hear the accents of sorrow and the burst of angry sound. I hear the devil-may-care laugh and the contemptuous expression. I hear the sighs and groans and bitter plaints. I see men shorn of all glory. I see womanhood clothed in shame. I see Vice rampant. I see Misery crawling. He recalls that he went into Kennington Park, sat down and "cried like a child" at the end of his first day. He also discusses the instructions he was given by his employer, which he felt were inadequate in their focus on religious and moral deliverance: 'Rescue them,' said my employers, 'and the last day of every month a small cheque shall be your reward.' 'How am I to do it?' 'Here's a temperance pledge-book; take pledges.' 'But there are others.' 'Give them tracts.' 'But there are the hungry and homeless to feed.' 'Give them tracts.' 'But there are the poor wantons.' 'Take them to rescue homes, and let them work out their own salvation at the wash-tubs.' However, he eventually adjusted and found that, in the procession of offenders through the court, "a field for the study of human nature is opened up, and nowhere in the wide world is there a field equal to it". There was opportunity to study "the drink question", "the social evil", the "causes of crime"; "every phase of every social problem has its place here".

Friendship with Jane Cakebread Jane Cakebread (1827/1828 – 17 December 1898) was a homeless woman notorious for her frequent arrests for public drunkenness; she appeared in court 277 times, and is credited for inspiring the Inebriates Act 1898. Holmes staged many interventions for her, providing her with clothes and money for accommodation, and she would frequently attempt to go see him whenever she was discharged from prison. Cakebread told Holmes he could inherit her (non-existent) fortune, and once proposed to him; her prized possessions were the clothes he gave her.

He died of heart failure on 26 March 1918 in London, Known to the Police (1908). London's Underworld (1912). Psychology and Crime (1912).