John Fielding

Sir John Fielding (* 1721 in London, † September 4, 1780 in London) was a British judge who was known by his blindness and his social reforms.

Life

John Fielding came from the family of the Earl of Denbigh. His father was Colonel Edmund Fielding, who had fought with distinction under Marlborough. His older half-brother was the judge and novelist Henry Fielding, his older half-sister, the writer and translator Sarah Fielding.

At the age of 19, Fielding became blind due to an accident in the Navy. But this suffering prevented Fielding not intend to open our own business. The Universal Register Office served both as a travel agency, information service and real estate office. While Fielding earned his living in this way, he graduated with the help of his brother Henry to study law in London.

1750 he was appointed assistant Henry, who had started as a justice of the peace to take action against crime and social ills. Together with John, he set up the first professional police force in England. The Bow Street Runners, named after the Bow Street, was in Henry's office, made ​​their service no longer guardrooms as the guards, but patrolled the streets. In addition, the Fielding gave the Police Gazette out the first regular police reports containing the cards of the criminals and the indication of a possible reward. In this way, they managed to reduce the number of crimes significantly.

After Henry's death in 1754, John was appointed itself as judge. The magistrate, he held it, it united the position of a judge to that of the Chief of the Metropolitan Police. He led the first mounted police patrol London was a consistent front against crime and corruption. Only juvenile criminal mastermind he showed leniency and fought for their rehabilitation. As a preventive measure, he also had set up in the poorer neighborhoods schools to give the children a life outside of crime and prostitution. Due to his blindness John Fielding was the personification of Justice and has been called by his contemporaries The Blind Beak of Bow Street. Legend has it that he was able to distinguish more than 3,000 criminals by their voices.

1761 Fielding was beaten for his contributions to the Knight. Sir John Fielding died on 4 September 1780 in Brompton Place, London.

Aftereffect

The person of the blind judge Fielding has both literary and cinematic experience a strong reception. The American writer Bruce Alexander Cook (1932-2003) wrote under the pseudonym Bruce Alexander since 1994 ( Blind Justice ) eleven crime novels with Sir John Fielding in the lead role. In Lawrence Norfolk " Lemprière 's Dictionary " plays Sir John Fielding also an important role. 1984/1985 also an ARD evening series was filmed under the title The Blind Judge directed by Vojtěch jasny, in the Franz Josef Steffens Sir John Fielding embodied.