Albert Bachert aka Alfred Charrington

[Debra Arif]

I wanted to mention the Blue Ribbon Army briefly again. I am still looking for the reference in the papers to Frederick Charrington being a member of the Blue Ribbon Army but no luck yet. I know it's there somewhere.

Anyway, the Blue Ribbon Army was founded in 1878 and seems to be similar to the Salvation Army. Backert stated he had formed a group some four years prior to 1883 and the Skeleton Army. Wondering if he may have also been involved in this Blue Ribbon Army?

(page 110)
https://books.google.com/books?id=q6...201883&f=false

Jerry, in ' The True Believer,' January 1893, Vol. VI, Issue 1, there is a mention of Frederick Charrington wearing a blue ribbon and being asked what it cost him, he replied 'twenty thousand pounds a year'

[Robert Linford]

Jerry - East London Observer, Oct 21st 1882 - a Mr Charrington says he's a member of the BRA - probab;y Frederick as there's a lot about him on the same page.


Maybe How can post it all.

[Jerry Dunlop]

Thank you Debs and Robert,

I knew it was there somewhere.

[Jerry Dunlop]

London Magnet
March 26, 1883


Looks like the Blue Ribbon Army was a form of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the case below the judge prolonged sentence if the men would join the Blue Ribbon Army and get the blue ribbon to show they had been sober for a period of time.

[Jerry Dunlop]

Maybe Violenia was a member of the Blue Ribbon Army?

Daily News
United Kingdom
12 September 1888

"The police during the afternoon and evening made (illegible) inquiries into the statements made by the man who professed to identify Piser. The manner of this man, who is apparently of Spanish blood and displays a blue ribbon on his coat, did not inspire much confidence in his veracity, and he was severely cross-examined by a sort of informal tribunal consisting of experienced detective officers."

[Robert Linford]

Of course, some people cashed in.

[Jerry Dunlop]

I think AB needed to try to earn a blue ribbon himself, according to this. This one has his name as Alfred Backert.

London Evening News and Post
June 30, 1891

[Tom_Wescott]

Very interesting stuff, Jerry. I start off my Bachert essay in Ripper Confidential with Bachert giving a talk in 1886 in front of Frederick Charrington.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Gary Barnett]

When he died in 1936, Fred Charrington left £37k, a sizeable sum at the time but a mere pittance in comparison to the very specific £1.25m it is often claimed he had sacrificed when he turned his back on the family brewing business.

In A Brewer's Progress, L. A. G. Strong tells us that 'His younger brother agreed to buy him out of the business over a period of years...' Fred had two younger brothers, John Douglas (1852 - 1945) and Arthur Leslie (1869 - 1889). Arthur Leslie died in 1889, leaving £78k. John Douglas died in 1945, leaving £806k and his son, Douglas Frederick, died in 1946, leaving £609k. I suspect JD was the younger brother to whom Fred passed his interest in the family brewery.

However, L. A. G. Strong tells us that Fred 'drew' a million pounds from the brewery and insists there was no rift between him and his father, Frederick (1816 - 1873). In fact he says that on his death bed Fred Sr ushered the rest of the family out of the room so he could have a final interview with Fred Jr, saying ''He is the only one who knows about these things' and, asking the rebel* to pray with him, gave him his blessing.' The Leominster News must have had a reporter hidden behind the curtains, though:





*The chapter on Fred in A Brewer's Progress is titled The Rebel. The book was privately printed in 1957 for Charringtons and contains a family tree which perhaps tellingly omits Fred although it includes other members of the family who were not directly involved in the brewing business.

[Gary Barnett]

Here's an earlier thread about FC. In post 13 Rob Clack provided a link to an online version of the Guy Thorne biography.

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=20609&highlight=Osea&page=4

[Gary Barnett]

And this is what Guy Thorne had to say about 'the sacrifice':

Mr. Charrington gave up, for the sake of conscience, the enormous sum of a million and a quarter. It is very difficult for ordinary people to realise what this sum means. In the first instance, it means about fifty thousand pounds a year—roughly a thousand pounds a week, or about a hundred and forty pounds a day. And yet the figures quite fail to convey the reality. For those who set store by honours and high places, a million and a quarter means a peerage, a singling out and setting above the vast majority of one's fellow-men. It ensures the adulation of almost every one. Plenty of people say, "I do not value the man for his possessions, but for himself," and such a remark may be made perfectly sincerely. But in point of actual fact, there are very few people who can listen to the obiter dicta of a millionaire without unconscious deference, and, for my part, without the least wish to be cynical, I have always thought what truth there is in a certain celebrated passage from "Vanity Fair" à-propos of the rich Miss Crawley.

"What a dignity," says Thackeray, "it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers'! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative (may every reader have a score of such), what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her! How the junior partner of Hobbs and Dobbs leads her smiling to the carriage with the lozenge upon it, and the fat, wheezy coachman. How, when she comes to pay us a visit, we generally find an opportunity of letting our friends know her station[29] in the world! We say (and with perfect truth) 'I wish I had Miss MacWhirter's signature to a cheque for five thousand pounds'.... Is it so, or is it not so?"
We must remember also that, while the millionaire of sense does not pay much attention to vulgar flattery, it is very pleasant to have people of charm, intellect, and position around one, and to be great among them. A million and a quarter, if a man has artistic tastes, enables him to buy the finest pictures, the most perfect pieces of statuary, the rarest and most beautiful of books evolved by the genius of mankind. If Mr. Pierpont Morgan, for example, had not a passion for beautiful things, he would certainly not own the greatest art collections that exist. But above all, a million and a quarter means Power—the most eagerly sought for, the most satisfying possession that this world has to offer.

All these things, and the list might be prolonged indefinitely, Frederick Charrington threw away.

[Debra Arif]

Very interesting stuff, Jerry. I start off my Bachert essay in Ripper Confidential with Bachert giving a talk in 1886 in front of Frederick Charrington.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Where was that talk, Tom?

[Debra Arif]

I think AB needed to try to earn a blue ribbon himself, according to this. This one has his name as Alfred Backert.

London Evening News and Post
June 30, 1891

Yes, Bachert was well known to be drunk, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I can't see Albert being in the BR army. Early reports in 1882 suggest he was originally in the Salvation Army but then switched to the Skeleton Army by 1883, unless the 1882 assault report is confused about which side he was on. The Skeleton Army were supposedly supported by the breweries and opposed to the temperance advocated by the Salvation Army and by Frederick Charrington himself.

I can't see Bachert supporting Frederick Charrington in his efforts myself. Maybe Spencer Charrington.

[Debra Arif]

Where was that talk, Tom?

I'm thinking it's the debate surrounding the opening of the People's Palace on Sundays and selling liquor?

[Gary Barnett]

I'm thinking it's the debate surrounding the opening of the People's Palace on Sundays and selling liquor?

Tom says it was at the Great Assembly Hall. Bachert apparently upset FC by saying, ' Mr Charrington, having made a rich harvest out of liquor, [has] now turned against it'