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Name: POPPY, Arthur James KPM, CPM

image of individual

Birth Date: 1905 Ongar, Essex

Death Date: 14 Jan 1983 Brighton

First Date: 1935

Profession: Acting Asst. Superintendent, Kenya Police in 1939, appointed 1939. Originally Chief Inspector 1935. CID in 1939.

Area: Nairobi

Married: Amy Winifred

Children: Mary H.; Richard A.

Book Reference: Staff 39. Mischief, Hut, Colonial

War Service: Military service 1940-46, Capt.

General Information:

Mischief - a tall man, with an unhurried, friendly manner and keen eyes, Poppy was a mixture of benign predator and paragon of British fair play. He had been with Scotland Yard for 10 years, where he was a member of the Flying Squad before being sent to Kenya in 1935 to organise the fingerprint department. By 1940 he was Chief of Police in Kenya and head of the CID. Poppy thought that Broughton was outwardly pleasant and confident and without affectation, but inwardly he had judged him to be cold, vindictive and vain, the sort of man who always wanted a return for his money, who never forgot an injury and would eventually look for his revenge ....... He saw him as a proud man, very pleased with his position, and felt he would have been a nasty customer if he didn't like you. ....….
June Carberry, who called him 'Popski', he considered feckless; she had manners but no morals. Furthermore she drank too much brandy and soda and couldn't be relied on for accuracy. Poppy had already put her husband in jail for 18 months for currency offences, and had no use for him either. ....... Diana, Poppy found hard and haughty, and acquisitive. ........ Poppy found Dickinson very agreeable, but characteristically he also regarded him with suspicion. He was too smooth, a little too obsequious, too clever by half.
Colonial - Supt. 1946; Senr. Supt. Tanganyika 1949; Asst. Commissioner 1953; Senr. Asst. Commissioner Uganda 1955-60
Mischief - Head of Nairobi CID at time of murder of Lord Erroll - called to the scene of the murder.

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