THERE is an old saying about a prophet not being honoured in his own country and Allan Pinkerton who founded the world-famous Pinkerton Detective Agency in America with the slogan ''The Eye that Never Sleeps'' is surely a classic case. Alas, I currently find no statues or plaques to his fame around his native city.
Pinkerton was born in a humble tenement in 1819, at the corner of Muirhead Street and old Rutherglen Loan in the grinding poverty of Glasgow's Gorbals district. Having been militantly involved in the struggles of the workers' Chartist movement, he was forced by fear and pressures from the authorities, and probably also through the lack of employment opportunities, to emigrate to America where he made good in his trade as a cooper.
Later he became a deputy sheriff and then first detective in the Chicago Police Force and, by dint of sheer natural ability, chief intelligence agent and confidant of President Lincoln during the Civil War.
After the war, Pinkerton agents pursued without respite Western outlaws such as Jesse James and his gang, including the Cole and Younger brothers, and would relentlessly hunt down and terminate the activities of outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
From its beginnings in a small Chicago office, today Pinkerton Security Services can boast nearly 300 offices worldwide employing 50,000 personnel in all manner of detective, surveillance, and security involvement.
Though the former cooper turned ''private eye'' was not without his critics, especially for ruthless policing by his agents in industrial disputes, Pinkerton's sheer ability as a natural-born detective, without formal training, constantly set the basic standards in his day, which are now routinely adopted by agencies worldwide. Pinkerton was first to exploit modern technologies, like the railroad, the telegraph, even introducing the first ''mug shots'' with detailed records on criminals in his fight against organised crime.
I agree with James Mackay, author of the finely researched book, The Eye Who Never Slept, on Pinkerton in the hope that his native city will some day make the effort to honour its famous son by means of a statue or memorial plaque. It would be good for tourism too.
Ronald Deen,
39 Aursbridge Drive,
Barrhead. May 12.
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