WITH his cheeky Cockney charm and oversized coat, the Artful Dodger from
Oliver Twist is one of literature’s most famous characters.
But a historian now believes he has uncovered the real-life inspiration for
the cheeky pickpocket created by Charles Dickens.
Cameron Nunn was researching child convicts sent to Australia during the
Victorian era when he came across the account of 13-year-old thief Samuel
Holmes.
A report written by magistrate William Augustus Miles was unearthed at the
National Archives in Kew, south-west London.
It is dated 1836 — two years before Dickens’ novel was published.
Miles interviewed Holmes alongside other young convicts on the prison ship HMS
Euryalus for a special parliamentary committee looking at juvenile crime in
London.
Trained as a pickpocket in an east London hideout almost identical to bearded
villain Fagin’s criminal den, young Holmes had already served four prison
sentences.
In the interview, Holmes told Miles how he came to join a criminal gang.
He said: “Two boys took me to a house in Stepney, kept by a Jew, and he agreed
to board and lodge me for 2’6 a week provided I brought and sold to him all
that I might steal. He has about 13 boys in the house on the same terms.”
Nicknamed “Smouchee”, the pint-sized pincher even described a trap door used
to hide the loot and boasted of a raid in which he stole a shopkeeper’s till
containing £17.
Holmes said: “The landlord has also the adjoining house and the back kitchen
is fitted with a trap door to help escape and in one corner of one of the
back kitchens is a sliding floor underneath which property is hid.”
In the novel, Dickens describes Fagin’s house: “After satisfying himself
upon the head, the Jew stepped gently to the door: which he fastened. He
then drew forth: as it seemed to Oliver, from some trap in the floor: a
small box, which he placed carefully on the table.
“His eyes glistened as he raised the lid, and looked in. Dragging an old
chair to the table, he sat down; and took from it a magnificent gold watch
sparkling with jewels.”
And, as in the novel, Holmes soon graduated to overseeing the teen crooks
under the watch of his cruel gang master.
He admitted: “I was about a fortnight in training and afterwards went out to
assist and screen the boys where they picked pockets.”
Historian Nunn said: “The parallels between Holmes’ account and the
description of Fagin’s house in Oliver Twist, as well as their mirror-image
personalities, are too similar to be a coincidence.”
According to Old Bailey court records, fresh-faced Holmes was arrested for
stealing a bullock’s tongue, three doves and a pigeon.
Holmes was sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Point Puer — the first
juvenile jail in Tasmania, Australia.
He was released aged 27, by which point Oliver Twist had made Dickens a
literary sensation.
Several stage shows, TV series and films have followed, including the 1968
musical movie Oliver! — the first version made in colour.
Crooks
Until now it was accepted the Artful Dodger was an invention of Dickens’
imagination, but Nunn believes he must have come across Holmes’ story while
working as a political correspondent for a newspaper before becoming a
novelist.
Holmes’ path into crime followed the death of his mother and his father’s fall
into alcoholism — a situation likely to have chimed with Dickens’
sympathetic nature.
The Artful Dodger, introduced by his real name Jack Dawkins in Dickens’
novel, becomes a friend and mentor to Oliver in similar surroundings to
those experienced by Holmes.
It is hinted that the Artful Dodger is transported to Oz like Holmes.
The transcript of Miles’ report also reveals similarities with the Dodger’s
happy-go-lucky personality and Holmes’ contempt for the law.
And in a statement which will surely worry soft-on-crime Justice Secretary Ken
Clarke, the pigeon-pilfering youngster scoffed at the idea of juvenile
crooks turning away from wrongdoing after their release and finding jobs.
Holmes said: “I think many of the boys might get a place and wish for one, but
it would only be for a day or two to rob their employers.”
He added: “Young thieves drink much and almost everyone keeps his girls.”
Mr Nunn said: “To read Miles’ interview is like a peek into the creative mind
of Dickens.
“It’s like having a photograph of the block of marble from which Michelangelo
sculpted David.
“It is reading the raw material alongside the finished masterpiece that we can
gain a deeper and richer understanding about Dickens as a craftsman and
writer.”
The story of Oliver’s journey from the workhouse is widely believed to be
based on Dickens’ own tough childhood, although this is disputed by some
critics.
The naming of Holmes is the second Oliver Twist discovery in recent times.
Medical historian Ruth Richardson has suggested that a workhouse in central
London was the model for the one in the novel and is campaigning for its
preservation.
Literary fans and historians alike will be keen to uncover other such
findings and may well be asking: Please, sir, can we have some more?