Letter by Edalji's Mother Who was George Edalji George Edalji was the eldest son of three for Shapurji Edalji and Charlotte Stoneham. His father was an Asian and his mother an English woman. George Edalji became a Birmingham solicitor during the early 1900s. He proved to be an outstanding student during law school and had won prizes from the Law Society. He wrote the book Railway Law for the "Man in the Train"which was "intended as a guide for the Travelling Public". His Background George Edalji's father was a Parsi who became vicar in the 1870s of the Great Wyrley in Staffordshire. The people of Great Wyrley did not accept George Edalji's father because they did not understand how an Asian could be a minister of a Christian church. In October 1903 George was convicted of an unproved charged of maiming horses and received a seven year sentence of penal servitude. The Staffordshire police were convinced that he had sacrificed horses to his alien gods although the evidence did not prove that as true. The fact that the Edalji family were Christians also made it unlikely that he would have been guilty of such an act. The police appear to have dedicated most of their effort to proving that George Edalji was the guilty culprit instead of trying to find the real culprit. When the incident occurred, the police went straight to George Edalji's house from the field where the injured animal was found before carrying out any other investigation. Harassment and Suspicion Prior to the incident, the Edalji family had received hoax letters and were harassed in other ways. However, the chief constable of Staffordshire police did not display a sympathetic attitude towards the family because he 'thought Black Men less than the beasts'. He believed that George Edalji was responsible for writing the letters against his own family and therefore took no action. However, the anonymous letters and horse killings continued during George's period of imprisonment. He was eventually released from prison in 1906 after efforts made by R.D. Yelverton, who had worked as Chief Justice in Bahamas and others to plead his case. Even after his release he was not pardoned and was subject to police surveillance. As a result of this, Arthur Conan Doyle decided to intervene in the case. He proved that George Edalji could not have been guilty. The findings from his investigation were sent to the Daily Telegraph and the Home Office. This resulted in the Home Office appointing a Committee to re-examine the case. The Committee's investigations led it to conclude that George Edalji had been wrongly accused of horse maiming. However, even after this result George Edalji was never compensated for the three years he had spent in prison and he was still considered guilty of writing the letters against his family. In a report written by the Rt. Hon Sir Arthur Wilson, The Rt. Hon John Lloyd Wharton and Sir Albert De Rutzen they appeared somewhat sympathetic towards the George Edalji case. However, they still accused him of bringing some of the troubles upon himself to some extent. The report provides a detailed outline of the evidence that was used against George Edalji and the weakness of the evidence. This report was sent to the Secretary of State , H. J. Gladstone who stated in his response that although he was willing to seek for Mr Edalji's pardon he did not think that the case warranted the provision of any compensation. Suggestions for further reading on the George Edalji case are: A Miscarriage of Justice: The Case of George Edalji (1905). This book was written by his father Rev. S. Edalji, in which he endeavours to present the facts to support his son's innocence. Letters and papers, 1902 - 1904, collected by Sir Benjamin Stone concerning the trial of George Edalji located in the Archives and Heritage Service (Floor 6) of the Birmingham Central Library - 370797 [IIR 89], ff. 163 -168. Parliamentary Report - Papers relating to the case of George Edalji located in the Social Sciences Section (Floor 4) of the Birmingham Central Library - Cd 3503 M/F LXVII, pp 403 - 410.