Dr. Charles Metcalfe

The Guild’s collection of photographs is held in the Kew Gardens Archive and our past Archivist Janette Ames  processed and repackaged them as part of a conservation project to protect the photographs and allow easier handling. The collection is a popular and fascinating resource for research into the business and life of staff at Kew.

One photograph that caught Janette's eye and piqued her interest was that of a Dr Charles Metcalfe.

Crimefighter and Kew Guild President may sound like a curious connection, but staff at Kew Gardens were sometimes called upon by police to help them track down safebreakers. Dr Metcalfe was one such staff member requested to use his skills for this purpose.

In the quest to make safes not only theft-proof, but fireproof, the cavity between inner and outer safe lining was filled with sawdust and alum (amongst other variations) to act as a firewall. The thief who managed to break into a safe would likely have incriminating traces of sawdust on their clothes, samples of which would be sent to Kew Gardens for analysis to see if there was a match.

Here is the photograph of Dr Metcalfe analysing samples of sawdust under the microscope.  We don’t know how many safebreakers were caught as a result of Dr Metcalfe’s work but it certainly made for a varied job description!