“Wiggins has just been up to report” [SIGN]
A little institutional history lesson today. Earlier this month, Michael Kean, "Wiggins" of the Baker Street Irregulars announced that he would be stepping down and that Steve Doyle would be succeeding him.
When Edgar Smith began administering the Baker Street Irregulars, the leadership was divided into the following roles, according to the BSI's Constitution and Buy-Laws:
The officers shall be: a Gasogene, a Tantalus, and a Commissionaire
While those titles were never used officially, Edgar informally called himself "Buttoms-cum-Commissionaire," and when Julian Wolff took over following Smith's untimely death in 1960, he assumed the title "Commissionaire."
It wasn't until Tom Stix was placed in the role in 1986 that the title "Wiggins" was used. Tom reasoned that it was the perfect selection, as Wiggins was the most senior of the band of street urchins ("One of their number, taller and older than the others" [SIGN]) who regularly helped Sherlock Holmes.
We're introduced to "the Baker Street division of the detective police force" in A Study in Scarlet, as the band of them rush into the sitting room at 221B:
“’Tention!” cried Holmes, in a sharp tone, and the six dirty little scoundrels stood in a line like so many disreputable statuettes. “In future you shall send up Wiggins alone to report, and the rest of you must wait in the street.”
A sensible order. But evidently one that didn't register with the boys, as the scene repeated itself in The Sign of Four and Holmes had to reissue his order:
As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirty and ragged little street-Arabs...“In future they can report to you, Wiggins, and you to me. I cannot have the house invaded in this way.”
Evidently, the boys on Baker Street need a little discipline and reminding every now and again.
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at the Baker Street Elementary website.
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