I read on the side of a police car this week “ANPR Fitted”. Not knowing what this meant I investigated.
ANPR was invented in the UK in 1976 by the Police Scientific Development Branch and it stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition. It is now used for law enforcement around the world and is often criticised for infringing human rights. In the UK it is used for enforcing speed limits on motorways and in London for enforcing payments in the central London congestion zone. I suspect it also has an important role to play in anti-terrorist operations.
The police car was parked on the Mall, at the bottom of the Duke of York’s Steps. At the top is a small, curious gravestone. It is for Giro, a terrier that belonged to the German ambassador, Leopold von Hoesch.
Von Hoesch was appointed by the Weimar Republic but then found himself representing the National Socialist Party. The German embassy was at 9 Carlton House Terrace, now home to the Royal Society. His beloved dog died in 1934 and two years later von Hoesch himself died of a stroke, aged only 55. He had been a popular diplomat and was accorded a 19 gun salute and a ceremonial send-off. His coffin was taken back to Germany on the British destroyer HMS Scout. This newsreel shows his coffin leaving the embassy escorted by the Grenadier Guards; note the embassy staff on the terrace making the Nazi salute. His successor, Joachim von Ribbentrop was not so popular. He crops up in an old post, Keep Buggering On.
Leopold von Hoesch did not get the same respect in his own country. No member of the Nazi government attended his funeral. London is full of memorials but Giro’s small tombstone remembers something that is not commemorated – when Germany and Britain were allies before the Nazis took power.
I had always understood that Giro was von Ribbentrop’s dog ( and in pointing out the grave stone to various people have asserted this). But you must be correct, as I see that Giro died in 1934 and von R didn’t become ambassador here until 1936. Keep it up !
Francis, I thought the same. However I have two task mistresses (Mrs T and The Hon Mrs E) who both now correct me by e mail to spare my blushes. Their precision has made me a more diligent fact checker. By the way, the terrier is not buried beneath the stone but in the garden of 9 Carlton House Terrace.