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Gilbert and Eileen Hale
NOTE: This profile is being constructed as the stories are read and must therefore be regarded as incomplete and work in progress.
Introduction to this 1920s duo for the Benefit of New Readers
Gilbert Hale is the grandson of Talbot Hale, a Sheffield steel foundry owner. Talbot's son (Gilbert's father), Charles, was unlucky in his speculations and the family business suffered. When he broke his neck in a hunting accident, there was little for Gilbert to inherit and what money he got he gambled away. Left in the hands of a moneylender, his back was against the wall. However, the moneylender's secretary, Eileen Dexter, took a shine to the youth and cooked up a scheme to double-cross her employer. Hale's debts were paid and, though Miss Dexter lost her job, she and the young man were soon married. Sexton Blake first encounters the husband and wife team in March of 1923, six months after their marriage. Eileen Hale is described, at this time, as a pretty girl of about eighteen or nineteen. She wears her hair in a short fashionable bob and is every inch a 1920s 'flapper'. Gilbert Hale is a couple of years older. He is tall, blonde and handsome. They are both unscrupulous characters, expert pickpockets and accomplished swindlers. Chronology: 1. The Case of the Petrol Turbine (UNION JACK issue 1,012, 1923) Gilbert and Eileen Hale join forces with a thug named Gant and a Japanese man neamed Dr Yorima Kamura to steal the blueprints for a new type of turbine engine from a foundry in Sheffield. When Sexton Blake and Tinker interfere, the gang members fall out with one another and their scheme fails. 2. The Case of the Haunted Works (UNION JACK issue 1,062, 1924) 3. The Secret Millionaire (SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series 332, 1924) 4. The Great Wembley Mystery (UNION JACK issue 1,078, 1924) 5. The Affair of the Country Club (SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series 351, 1924) More to come... ... |
