Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren , GCMG , KCB , FRS ( 7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927 ) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers . He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land , and particularly of Temple Mount . Much of his military service was spent in the British South Africa , but in earlier life he was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis , the head of the London Metropolitan Police , from 1886 to 1888 , during the period of the Jack the Ripper murders . His command in combat during the Second Boer War was criticised , but he achieved considerable success during his long life in his military and civil posts . Education and early military career . Warren was born in Bangor , Gwynedd , Wales , the son of Major - General Sir Charles Warren . He was educated at Bridgnorth Grammar School and Wem Grammar School in Shropshire . He also attended Cheltenham College for one term in 1854 , from which he went to the Royal Military College , Sandhurst and then the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich ( 1855 – 1857 ) . On 27 December 1857 , he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers . On 1 September 1864 , he married Fanny Margaretta Haydon ( died 1919 ) ; they had two sons and two daughters . Warren was a devout Anglican and an enthusiastic Freemason , becoming the third District Grand Master of the Eastern Archipelago in Singapore and the founding Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge . Military career . From 1861 to 1865 , Warren worked on surveying Gibraltar . During this time he surveyed the Rock of Gibraltar using trigonometry and with the support of Major - General Frome , he created two , long scale detailed models of Gibraltar . One of these was kept at Woolwich , but the other , which survives , is on display at Gibraltar Museum . These models not only depicted the shape of The Rock and harbour but also every road and building . From 1865 to 1867 , he was an assistant instructor in surveying at the School of Military Engineering in Chatham . He was promoted Captain for this work . Ottoman Syria . In 1867 , Warren was recruited by the Palestine Exploration Fund to conduct Biblical archaeology " reconnaissance " with a view of further research and excavation to be undertaken later in Ottoman Syria , but more specifically the Holy Land or Biblical Palestine . He conducted the first major excavations of Jerusalem ' s Temple Mount , thereby ushering in a new age of Biblical archaeology . His most significant discovery was a water shaft , now known as Warren ' s Shaft , and a series of tunnels underneath the Temple Mount . His " Letters " from the expedition would be published later as a journal . In 1870 , ill - health forced Warren to return to England . South Africa . He served briefly at Dover and then at the School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness ( 1871 – 1873 ) . In 1876 , the Colonial Office appointed him special commissioner to survey the boundary between Griqualand West and the Orange Free State . For this work , he was made a Companion of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in 1877 . In the Transkei War ( 1877 – 1878 ) , he commanded the Diamond Fields Horse and was badly wounded at Perie Bush . For this service , he was mentioned in dispatches and promoted to Brevet Lieutenant - Colonel . He was then appointed special commissioner to investigate " native questions " in Bechuanaland and commanded the Northern Border Expedition troops in quelling the rebellion there . In 1879 , he became Administrator of Griqualand West . The town Warrenton in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa is named after him . Palmer expedition investigation . In 1880 , Warren returned to England to become Chief Instructor in Surveying at the School of Military Engineering . He held this post until 1884 , but it was interrupted in 1882 , when the Admiralty sent him to Sinai to discover what had happened to Professor Edward Henry Palmer ' s archaeological expedition . He discovered that the expedition members had been robbed and murdered , located their remains , and brought their killers to justice . For this , he was created Knight Commander of St Michael and St George ( KCMG ) on 24 May 1883 and was also created a third class Mejidiye by the Egypt ian government . In 1883 , he was also made a Knight of Justice of the Order of St . John of Jerusalem , and in June 1884 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ( FRS ) . Bechuanaland Expedition . In December 1884 , by now a Major - General , Warren was sent as HM Special Commissioner to command a military expedition to Bechuanaland , to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal , and to suppress the Boer freebooter states of Stellaland and Goshen , which were backed by the Transvaal and were stealing land and cattle from the local Tswana tribes . Becoming known as the Warren Expedition , the force of 4 , 000 British and local troops headed north from Cape Town , accompanied by the first three observation balloons ever used by the British Army in the field . The expedition achieved its aims without bloodshed , and Warren was recalled in September 1885 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George ( GCMG ) on 4 October 1885 . Commissioner of Police . In 1885 , Warren stood for election to Parliament as an independent Liberal candidate in the Sheffield Hallam constituency with a radical manifesto . He lost by 690 votes , and was appointed commander at Suakin in 1886 . A few weeks after he arrived , however , he was appointed Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis following Sir Edmund Henderson ' s resignation . The exact rationale for the selection of Warren for the post is still unknown . Up to that time , and for some time into the 20th Century , the heads of Scotland Yard were selected from the ranks of the military . In Warren ' s case he may have been selected in part by his involvement in discovering the fate of Professor Palmer ' s expedition into the Sinai in 1883 . If so there may have been a serious error regarding his " police work " in that case , as it was a military investigation and not a civil style police operation . The Metropolitan Police was in a bad state when Warren took over , suffering from Henderson ' s inactivity over the past few years . Economic conditions in London were bad , leading to demonstrations . He was concerned for his men ' s welfare , but much of this went unheeded . His men found him rather aloof , although he generally had good relations with his superintendents . At Queen Victoria ' s Golden Jubilee in 1887 , the police received considerable adverse publicity after Miss Elizabeth Cass , an apparently respectable young seamstress , was ( possibly ) mistakenly arrested for soliciting , and was vocally supported by her employer in the courts . To make matters worse , Warren , a Liberal , did not get along with Conservative Home Secretary Henry Matthews , appointed a few months after he became Commissioner . Matthews supported the desire of the Assistant Commissioner ( Crime ) , James Monro , to remain effectively independent of the Commissioner and also supported the Receiver , the force ' s chief financial officer , who continually clashed with Warren . Home Office Permanent Secretary Godfrey Lushington did not get on with Warren either . Warren was pilloried in the press for his extravagant dress uniform , his concern for the quality of his men ' s boots ( a sensible concern considering they walked up to 20 miles a day , but one which was derided as a military obsession with kit ) , and his reintroduction of drill . The radical press completely turned against him after Bloody Sunday on 13 November 1887 , when a demonstration in Trafalgar Square was broken up by 4 , 000 police officers on foot , 300 infantry men and 600 mounted police and Life Guards . In 1888 , Warren introduced five Chief Constable s , ranking between the Superintendents and the Assistant Commissioners . Monro insisted that the Chief Constable of the Criminal Investigation Department ( CID ) , his deputy , should be a friend of his , Melville Macnaghten , but Warren opposed his appointment on the grounds that during a riot in Bengal Macnaghten had been " beaten by Hindoos " , as he put it . This grew into a major row between Warren and Monro , with both men offering their resignation to the Home Secretary . Matthews accepted Monro ' s resignation , but simply moved him to the Home Office and allowed him to keep command of Special Branch , which was his particular interest . Robert Anderson was appointed Assistant Commissioner ( Crime ) and Superintendent Adolphus Williamson was appointed Chief Constable ( CID ) . Both men were encouraged to liaise with Monro behind Warren ' s back . Jack the Ripper . Warren ' s biggest difficulty was the Jack the Ripper case . He was probably unfairly blamed for the failure to track down the killer and faced press accusations that were frequently baseless . He was accused of failing to offer a reward for information , although in fact he supported the idea and it was blocked by the Home Office . He was accused of not putting enough police officers on the ground , whereas in fact Whitechapel was swamped with them . He was accused of being more interested in uniformed policing than detective work , which was true , but failed to take into consideration the fact that he allowed his experienced detective officers to conduct their own affairs and rarely interfered in their operations . He was accused of not using bloodhound s , and when he did eventually bring them in he was accused of being obsessed with them . He responded to these criticisms by attacking his detractors in the pages of " Murray ' s Magazine " , supporting vigilante activity , which the police on the streets knew was a bad idea , and publicly complaining about his lack of control of CID , which brought an official Home Office reprimand for discussing his office publicly without permission . Warren finally had enough and resigned - coincidentally right before the murder of Mary Jane Kelly on 9 November 1888 . Every superintendent on the force visited him at home to express their regret . Warren ' s resignation hindered the investigation . He had given an order that if another murder occurred , nobody was to enter the scene - a strange turn of phrase as the four previous victims had all been found in the open street - until he arrived to direct the investigation . Consequently , when the murder of Kelly was discovered by a rent collector who looked in through the window of her room in a Spitalfields lodging house , the police did not enter the room for some three hours because , unaware of his resignation , they were waiting for Warren to arrive . He returned to military duties . He was appointed Knight Commander of the Bath ( KCB ) on 7 January 1888 . Later military career and Boer War . In 1889 , Warren was sent to command the garrison in Singapore and continually quarrelled with the Home Secretary . He sited the guns of Singapore and remained there until 1894 . Returning to England , he commanded the Thames District from 1895 to 1898 , when he was promoted Lieutenant - General and was moved to the Reserve List . Royal Engineer Yacht Club . Watermanship being one of the many skills required of the Sapper led to the formation of a sailing club at the School of Military Engineering in 1812 and later to the development of cutter rowing teams . Construction of a canal linking Thames and Medway rivers in 1824 gave the Royal Engineers an inland waterway to practice these skills , with the officer responsible for the canal drawn from the Royal Engineers Regiment . In 1899 as General Officer Commanding the Thames and Medway Canal , General Sir Charles Warren presented a challenge shield for a championship cutter race on the River Medway against the Royal Navy . The Sapper teams were drawn from members of the Submarine Mining School , but when the service was disbanded in 1905 , the tradition of cutter rowing was continued by the fieldwork squads . The REYC continues to compete against the Royal Navy Sailing Association annually to this day . The club developed and became the Royal Engineer Yacht Club in 1846 , making it one of the most senior yacht clubs in the United Kingdom . The REYC continues to this day , operating three club yachts and competing on behalf of the Corps at races around the world . The club is one of the oldest sports clubs in the British Army . Second Boer War . On the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899 , he returned to the colours to command the 5th Division of the South African Field Force . Farwell described the decision to give command to Warren as " an enigma " . In January 1900 , Warren bungled the second attempted relief of Ladysmith , which was a west flanking movement over the Tugela River . At the Battle of Spion Kop , on 23 January – 24 January 1900 , he had operational command , and his failure of judgment , delay and indecision despite his superior forces culminated in the disaster for British arms on Spion Kop . Farwell highlighted Warren ' s fixation with the army ' s oxen and his view that Hlangwane hill was the key to Colenso . He suggested Warren was " perhaps the worst " of the British generals in the Boer War and certainly the most " preposterous " . He was described by Redvers Buller in a letter to his wife as ' a duffer ' who was responsible for losing him ' a great chance . ' Warren was recalled to Britain in August 1900 and never again commanded troops in the field . He was , however , promoted General in 1904 and became Colonel - Commandant of the Royal Engineers in 1905 . A book by the South African , Owen Coetzer , attempted " in a small way to vindicate him " for his Boer War actions . Retirement years . From 1908 , Warren became involved with Baden - Powell in the creation of the Boy Scout movement . He had previously authored several books on Biblical archaeology , particularly Jerusalem , and also wrote " " On Veldt in the Seventies " " , and " " The Ancient Cubit and Our Weights and Measures " " . He died of pneumonia , brought on by a bout of influenza , at his home in Weston - super - Mare , Somerset , was given a military funeral in Canterbury , and was buried in the churchyard at Westbere , Kent , next to his wife . Fictional portrayals . Warren was played by Basil Henson in the 1973 miniseries " Jack the Ripper " . He was played by Anthony Quayle in the 1979 film " Murder by Decree " , which features the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in a dramatization of a concerning the Ripper case . In the 1988 made for TV mini - series " Jack the Ripper " , which followed the same conspiracy theory as " Murder by Decree " , he was played by Hugh Fraser . The mini - series shows his final act as commissioner ordering lead detective Fred Abberline to suppress his findings on the investigation in order to protect the royal family from scandal . In the 2001 film " From Hell " he was played by Ian Richardson .