Antiques Roadshow expert ‘refuses to value’ WWI police mugshots as he issues public appeal

An Antiques Roadshow expert “refused” to value a book full of police mugshots as he issued an appeal to viewers at home. Filmed at the heart of Cardiff’s Alexandra Gardens, BBC expert Marc Allum was presented with an old police ledger dating back to the First World War.

The proud owner revealed that the long-lost ledger was salvaged from a pile of rubbish from the Cardiff docks which was filled with some of the first known mugshots in Welsh history. Upon closer inspection, the specialist learnt that the book contained pictures of more than 2,500 people who had passed through the docks. Marc began: “What we have here is an incredible alphabetical collection of photographs, or mugshots as I’ve called them, taken during the First World War and I am absolutely staggered by the contents of this book. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

The owner then shared some of the backstory about the document which he had discovered from his own research. He told the expert: “It's a police record of all the people who came through the Cardiff docks.

“In 1912, Cardiff was the greatest calling border in the world, but in the 1960s and ‘70s, all the shipping quarters were closing down.

“So outside all the offices in the docks in those days, there were all these ledgers and books and documents all for the Dusk Guards. And tens of thousands of documents were thrown out. This one was retrieved by somebody in 1970 from the incinerator and the rest were destroyed.”

Shocked at the loss of history, the pair took a closer look at the book and revealed some of the photographs inside. It was at this point that the expert revealed that the book also featured a key of symbols which officers used to attribute to suspected spies entering the country.

He fumed: “I can’t even begin to understand the kind of history that disappeared. This is an incredible melting pot of people. If we look at the front page here, what the police have done is put a whole key code of symbols and letters and they’ve attributed those to the people within this catalogue of human beings.

“And these people I can’t help but think were escaping war, they were escaping persecution. There are families, there are women, there are children in here. They have even suspected some of being a spy, using what evidence I don’t know.”

It was at this point that the broadcaster poked fun at some of the snaps, admitting that even he looked like a “criminal” on his passport.

He chuckled: “And I don’t mean this in the worst way, but some of these people do look like criminals in their mugshots. But some of us do, I think I do on my passport. What I’m trying to convey is the mixture of people in this book.”

After delving into its history, Marc issued an appeal to historians tuning in at home to see if they could help explore the history of these individuals and find some of their relatives still living to this day.

The presenter suggested: “I think what we should do is put it out there open it up and see if there’s anybody who’s watching who thinks they can take on this volume of research and maybe digitising it.

“They could delve a lot deeper into these people, because I have no doubt in my mind that there are relatives of these people all over this country and far beyond that perhaps who know people in this book.

“Every picture tells a story, and with over two and a half thousand people there, there must be some stories alongside those people, and I would love to know.”

Despite the fascinating history behind the lost police records, the expert decided not to put a value on the hundred-year-old book.

He explained: “I’m not going to put a value on this, this is not something you can value. Let's see if we can add value to it by giving justice to the history to some of these people in this volume.”

Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays from 7pm on BBC One or catch up on BBC iPlayer.