Persons of Interest – Harold Hagger Posted 23 April 2018 by Tessa KeoughPersons of Interest On the second and fourth Mondays of each month, we will share a short story provided by a member about a person of interest in their one-name study. So whether your person is good, bad, or simply interesting or unusual, please send us your 200-300 word story with one or a few images. This post is from Guild member Peter Hagger. The picture is the only picture Peter has found of Harold. It appeared in the Daily Mirror and he is in the flat cap arriving at Malling Magistrates Court. Harold is probably the most infamous Hagger we have so far investigated. He was not only a bigamist, but also found guilty of murder and hung. Harold was descended from Henry Hagger, who was one of the thirteen children of William Hagger and Annie Bullard, both born in Therfield. William was a son of Alfred and Eliza Anderson. Alfred’s parents were Henry and Eliza Gilby. The full tree of Harold’s ancestors can be viewed at www.hagger.org, I am also descended from Henry and Eliza. Harold Hagger was born 1901 in Upper Holloway and on 2nd August 1917 enlisted in the Army. It appears from his army records that his father then informed the Army that he was underage and sent his birth certificate to the MOD. So, on the 4th October 1917, Harold was discharged from the Army, and despite only serving two months he was charged with a string of misdemeanours. Perhaps the Army was quite pleased to see the back of Harold. In 1927, at St Anne’s Church, Islington, Harold married for the first time and his bride was Sophia Catton. The records show that in 1926 in Islington Sophia had a son, Ronald, and registered him as Ronald Arthur Catton. However, when Ronald married in 1950 he declared himself as Ronald Hagger. So it is probable that Harold was his father. Harold married for a second time, before Sophia died, and there is no record of a divorce. This may explain when Harold married this time he did so as Sidney Sinclair. His bride was Daisy Lindsell a widow (born as Oakley) and they were married at Cambridge Registry Office in 1940. It was not until 1946 that Harold again turns up when a lady was hitchhiking at Malling in Kent and she was murdered. Through some really good detective work and probably some luck Sidney Sinclair was charged with the murder. Subsequently, he was found guilty and hung at Wandsworth prison in 1947. It turns out Harold, or Sidney, had a string of previous convictions and was known in the Kings Cross area of London (when he was Harold) as ‘Basher Hagger’. At the time of the offence, Sidney was living in Little Abingdon, Cambridgeshire and working as a lorry driver. In researching Harold I found it fascinating that the case was investigated by Fabian – who I thought was a fictional detective on the TV but at this time he was a leading Scotland Yard detective. When I visited the National Archives at Kew I was able to not only handle the original police file but also photograph pages from it, including Sidney’s statements to the police. Since 1947 there have been a number of magazine articles on this case and books also featuring it. More recently Martin Hagger (the person who got me started on my one-name study) has assisted an author – Diana Souhami who has now published a book on the Sidney case – Murder at Wrotham Hill. Peter’s website can be seen HERE and there is a DNA Project for the Hagger surname which can be found HERE Why not submit a story about a person of interest in your own one-name study. Email each story and image(s) to marketing@one-name.org.