R M Tinkler

39 ms letters to his sister and his aunt, the first two written during his service in the ranks of the 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers on the Western Front (October 1917 - May 1918), the remainder during his service initially as a constable but later as a Detective Sub Inspector, in the Shanghai Municipal Police (August 1919 - January 1930), with many interesting details and opinions about his working conditions, his occasional employment on military intelligence duties, the prevalence of prostitution and drug addiction in Shanghai and his travels elsewhere in the Far East, as well as forceful expressions of his very low regard for the Chinese and of his disenchantment with the British community in the Far East; together with a few official documents concerning his employment in and resignation from the Shangai Municipal Police (1924 - 1930), ts correspondence and presscuttings relating to his death in June 1939 when trying to resist efforts by Japanese marines to break up a strike at the Shanghai cotton mill where he was employed and the international repercussions of this incident (June 1939 - May 1940), and some printed ephemera.

<p>See also the papers of Brigadier L F Field (pages 46-48)</p>

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Maurice Tinkler sprang briefly into public prominence in June 1939 when he was mortally wounded by Japanese marines while trying to resist their efforts to break up a strike by Chinese workers at the Shanghai cotton mill where he was employed. For a short while Tinkler's death assumed the proportions of an international incident, but it was soon overshadowed by the series of events in Europe which led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Tinkler was born in the late 1890's and attended Ulverston Grammar School in Lancashire, where his teachers remembered him as a pupil who possessed "brilliant ability and a truly creative mind". At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the 24th Royal Fusiliers and for the last two years of the war served on the Western Front, winning the DCM for his gallantry. (letters 1-2) After his demobilization in 1919, Tinkler took up an appointment as a Constable in the Shanghai Municipal Police, but in the following year he was transferred to the CID as a Detective-Constable. Despite his intense dislike of his superior officers, the low pay and the long working hours, Tinkler made good progress in the force and by 1926 had been promoted to the rank of Detective Sub-Inspector. (3, 5-7, 9-12, 17-18, 26, 31). During the local disturbances in Shanghai between September 1924 and March 1927 Tinkler was often detailed for military intelligence work which he performed with considerable efficiency. (18, 23-25, 27-32, 35). In January 1930 he was given the probationary rank of Inspector, but a number of serious breaches of police discipline soon led to his reduction in rank and his resignation that October.

Documentary evidence about Tinkler's life is sparse after this date, though he did work for some time for the Shanghai firm of Tan Kah Kee which went into voluntary liquidation in 1934. The following year Tinkler began his fateful association with the China Printing and Finishing Company, working at their cotton mill at Pootung Point, Shanghai. His colleagues found him a man of "staunch character and kindly nature" and he was specially commended for his devoted service to the Company during the local hostilities of 1937. It was Tinkler's loyalty in similar circumstances that led to his untimely death in 1939, although he would probably have lived if the Japanese authorities had allowed him to receive proper medical attention after the affray.