ABSTRACT
In 1905, Wolverhampton was a successful industrial town with a population of about 95 000. The resourcefulness and continued success of Wolverhampton was expressed in a justifiable sense of civic pride in 'the good old town'. Wolverhampton Council established their own enquiry and submitted a preliminary statement to Sir Harry Haward shortly after he arrived in the town to begin his work. This statement, which was relatively brief, emphasised that the council had held a high and apparently justifiable level of confidence in Jesse Varley. Junior staff sometimes suspected that Varley was engaged in some degree of fraud but it was several years before their fears were reported to a higher authority. Haward re-emphasised that the frauds were facilitated by the uncertainty which existed among councillors regarding who was actually responsible for supervising Varley. Haward considered the Varley affair to have represented 'the most remarkable frauds in the history of the municipal administration of this country'.
