ABI Origins
The Association of British Investigators - 100 years
The year was 1913 when a retired Scotland Yard detective by the name of Harry Smale laid the first foundation stone of what is the Association of British Investigators we know today. Little would Mr Smale have known that his meeting with a group of other London private detectives, and their decision to form the British Detectives Association would one day become the UK's leading organization to represent professional investigators in the private sector.
The purpose and objectives back in 1913 are quoted as follows:
"To promote and protect the interests of members and their relations with each other and with their employees, to reform abuses, to improve and purify detective methods, to guard against imposition and fraud by such persons as do not meet their obligations, also to seek national and international business in the name of the Association and apportion same amongst it's members. To make it a clean profession by our example and endeavor to purge it of undesirables"
ABI Past Presidents from 1969, click HERE
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1952 ABI Deputation to Home Secretary |
Wise words from wise men of their day, and objectives that those Association leaders who have followed have worked hard to achieve.
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Governing Council 1951 |
Harry Smale 1913 (ABI founder) |
A Galvin 1959 |
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ABI House, 10 Bonner Hill Road, Kingston upon Thames, 1971 - 2001 |
ABI House, Office Wall Plaque, 1971 - 2001 |
Albert Miller 1972 |
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1965 |
Cliff Burgess |
Clive Naylor 1974 |
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Frank Martin 1970 |
Governing Council 1971 |
GC Wives 1971 |
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1972 |
1972 |
1972 |
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Frank Martin, Peter & Iris Heims |
1972 Tony Kinghorn, Peter & Iris Heims |
Frank Martin & John Showell 1960s |
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Gerald Kemp 1973 |
Alan Drake 1975 |
Colin Finlay 1984 |
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Governing Council 1977 |
George Rivers 1987 |
Zena Scott Archer |
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George Pulley 1988 |
Colin Dexter OBE, Patron 2017 |