E-mail from Ray Morrell - 'Riggs - another policeman - pre-war I think. He started Nairobi's first detective agency (and also the first fish and chip shop)'

Nairobi Forest Road cemetery - Alfred William Riggs, British, age 61, died 2/6/57

Colonial - Supt. 1940; Senior 1947

UK Foreign and Overseas Registers for marriage - Riggs was at the time a Regimental Sergeant Major. Marriage took place in Brit. Consulate, Alexandria, Egypt

Kenya Police Review He retired in 1951 after nearly 30 years in the Colonial Police services of which 12 years were in the Kenya Police At the time of his retirement he was acting Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department. He served in the army from 1914 to 18 with the 2/4th Royal West Kent Regiment and was attached to various Indian regiments to instruct in bombing and demolition. He served in the Dardanelles and then in the Camel Corps in the Sinai Desert. The entry of his battalion into newly captured Jerusalem brought him great prominence. From 1920-21 his job was the destruction of ammunition and mines in the munition dumps on the banks of the Suez Canal where he laid a 12 mile railway track to run the ammunition for demolition into the desert. In 1922 he joined the Palestine Police and had to convert the Municipal Watchmen's Service of the city of Jerusalem into something approximating police. In 1923 he took charge of the Jaffa Division, a very difficult commission to which he brought great success. He developed his extensive knowledge of police prosecution for he had many riots, alarms and serious crimes to attend to, culminating in the Jaffa riot of 1920-29 and the famous battle in the Mosque Square. He was transferred to CID headquarters in Jerusalem to organize an executive branch of the CID. He created the first police laboratory in Palestine and was instructor and lecturer on the CID courses in footprints, fingerprints, ballistics and forensic medicine. Later he organized the first anti-illegal immigration service in Palestine, thereby creating the first Palestine Police Coast Guard unit. His duty in the Palestine CID took him frequently abroad and in Paris he rounded up a gang of international criminals which operated vast banking frauds. He was responsible for smashing the Palestine headquarters of the Communist Party then becoming a very dangerous threat to peace. He also did much to smash the dangerous drugs trafficking between Turkey and Syria into Egypt. A bulletproof waistcoat bearing evidence of the attempts made on his life while in charge of the anti-terrorist organization he kept as a souvenir. As his life and the lives of his family were endangered, the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the advice of the Inspector General decided that he should be transferred and at the end of 1938 he was seconded to Kenya. He was awarded the MBE in 1936. He was appointed Director of Intelligence and Security for Kenya, taking charge as well of the Criminal Investigation and Immigration Department. For his services during this period he was awarded the King's Police Medal. Later he took charge of the Central Province. His last post was the CID of which in the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police he took charge in 1950. He will be opening a private detective agency in Kenya.