HISTORY FEATURE: International manhunt for steelworks wages thief

He had worked at the steelworks since it opened 18 years earlier, and it was part of his job to take the cash back to Templeborough.

He was well-respected and trusted and the bank clerk, Joseph Chislett, was familiar with this regular visitor to the branch at the foot of Rotherham’s High Street.

On Friday, September 22, 1893, Buttenshaw left the works at 10.30am and withdrew the wages about half an hour later.

Chislett asked how he would like the money. All in gold, said Buttenshaw, as he had plenty of silver back at the office from last week.

The cash was passed across the desk and placed in a small leather bag. It was £760, which is more than £108,000 in today’s money.

But the steelworks did not see Buttenshaw or the wages that day — and what happened next sparked an international manhunt.

The Advertiser of September 30 said: “A good deal of sensation has been caused in Rotherham during the present week by the disappearance from the town of a gentleman well known among all sections of the community.

“The runaway is Mr Richard James Buttenshaw, who for a long period has held the responsible position of cashier to Messrs Steel, Peech and Tozer, proprietors of the important and extensive Phoenix Bessemer Steel Works.

“Naturally, his disappearance has created widespread astonishment and has formed a chief topic of conversation, not only among the more influential people to whom he was well known, but also among a certain portion of the working class.

“It was not until half past three o’clock in the afternoon that his absence from his duties came to the knowledge of Mr E Tozer. Inquiries were at once instituted, but no tidings could be heard of him.”

Buttenshaw was not at home. It emerged that he had taken the 11.42am train to Doncaster instead. A warrant was issued, and the police were praised for acting swiftly.

Telegrams were sent — describing the offence and the suspect — to London and various seaport towns.

Buttenshaw (51) left Doncaster at 1.40pm and the belief was that he was heading for London. A person matching his description was spotted alighting at Ely in Cambridge.

This person called for a cup of tea at the Lamb Hotel, then applied for lodgings at the University Arms at about 9pm.

“The man, whether it was the Rotherham fugitive or not, seems to have left Cambridge at 7am to following morning, remarking that he was on his way to Norwich,” the Advertiser reported. “All trace was then lost of him.”

By Sunday, it was believed Buttenshaw had gone to Southampton. A photograph was sent to police on the south coast, who immediately telegraphed their colleagues back in Rotherham.

Detective Best, of the Southampton force, had noticed a person who looked like Buttenshaw who had booked for New York and left on the SS Saale, a North German Lloyd ocean liner.

The ship departed England on Saturday afternoon.

The Home Office was contacted, with a view to having Buttenshaw arrested on arrival in the United States — if it was him on board...

It wasn’t.

Buttenshaw was arrested on Monday, October 10, in Ely, having never ventured further than the little Cambridgeshire city.

He had made a room at the Bell Hotel his headquarters, from where he enjoyed extravagant days out paid for by the SPT wage haul.

There was no attempt to hide his identity, beyond going by the alias John Calbert, and pretending to be a gentleman of considerable wealth.

He paid several visits to well-known places within day-trip distance of Ely — sometimes hiring a coach and horses.

The city’s police were in possession of the description and photos circulated by officers back in Rotherham but had no clue that Buttenshaw was in their midst.

He went about in his open fashion among the city’s 8,000 population for almost three weeks.

That was until Rotherham’s chief constable, Mr J Enright, received information “of a most definite character” about the wanted man’s whereabouts.

Mr Enright telegraphed Ely with instructions to get round to the Bell sharply, arrest Buttenshaw and recover the stolen money. Supt King and another officer went along to the hotel — and Buttenshaw was detained, after initially pretending to be someone else.

He had with him a new Gladstone bag, silk hat and case, as well as a bag containing £596 9s 3d, having “been somewhat lavish in his expenditure,” the Advertiser of that week noted.

Buttenshaw was locked up for the night and brought back to Rotherham, arriving at 9.30pm on the Tuesday.

He looked “very haggard” when he emerged in court on Wednesday morning, the Advertiser said. He was denied bail.

Appearing again eight days later, it emerged that the theft which led to Buttenshaw absconding to Ely was not an isolated incident.

He had also taken £226 (£32,278 in 2022 money) from SPT’s accident club, £208 (£29,707) from the Rotherham Hospital fund, and £1,931 (£275,793) from various sources over a long-term period, and had been falsifying accounts.

It made a total not far off half a million pounds, in today’s figures.

Buttenshaw, who lived with his wife and children at Leafy Bank in Moorgate, had been falsifying accounts and producing fictitious receipts for more than eight years.

Steel, Peech & Tozer clerk Harry Taylor gave evidence in court, saying the prisoner had “not been steady” for the past few months.

Mr F Parker Rhodes, the magistrates’ clerk, said: “You say not steady. Do you mean addicted to drink?”

“Yes,” replied Mr Taylor.

Mr Hickmott, prosecuting on behalf of the steelworks, asked Det Sgt Ross if the prisoner had made any statement while on the train back to Rotherham from Ely.

The officer responded: “He said his employers would not be above £30 or £40 losers. He seemed to be very tottering, as if he had been drinking heavily.”

Buttenshaw was committed for trial at Leeds Assizes on December 2. Mr Kershaw, mitigating, said this was an extremely sad case.

He told the court it must be a grievous thing for a man whose life seemed respectable to be placed in the dock on a charge of this kind. Buttenshaw had “given way completely” to drink.

The judge, Mr Justice Vaughan Williams, sentenced the prisoner to six years’ penal servitude.

He told Buttenshaw: “Not only must you have been suffering from the oppression, the consciousness of this crime, but it must have also paralysed any effort on your part to realise the higher feelings of a man.

“Now, although you are going to undergo a severe and terrible punishment, you will at least have this blessing, that now for the first time in all these long years you will have the opportunity of really and sincerely trying to do well.

“You may even succeed in making the very punishment itself a blessing to you.”

Buttenshaw’s story is among the favourites of Laura Gardiner (right), archives and local studies supervisor, based at Clifton Park Museum, who even created a history trail in 2018 based on the saga.

“It has everything,” she said. “He had been at SPT since the firm began and was well trusted. His yearly wage was £250 plus £25 extra for good behaviour.

“What I like is how it became an international manhunt, but it turned out he had been in Ely the entire time, under the alias John Calvert, and wasn’t even remotely trying to blend in. He was telling people he was a politician and spending cash left and right.”