Sir William Bentley Purchase (31 December 1890 – 27 September 1961) was a British physician and

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. He pursued a career in medical examination and served, from 1930 to 1958, as the

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

with jurisdiction over much of London. He is best known for his role in the development of

Operation Mincemeat Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating ...

, a deception operation during the Second World War.

Biography

Bentley Purchase's father, Sir William Henry Purchase of

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

, was a successful importer of straw goods such as hats. The family had means to enroll young Bentley in

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

, Cambridge, where he pursued the liberal arts. Graduating from Cambridge in 1911, Purchase studied law and entered medical studies at the

London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and sp ...

, graduating in 1914. Bentley was commissioned as a medical officer in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

on the Western Front in 1914–18, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in 1917. Upon the coming of peacetime Purchase continued his career pathway and resumed his interrupted legal and medical studies, becoming a barrister in the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1919 and a Bachelor in Medicine in 1921. He was now qualified to serve as a coroner with jurisdiction over cases that required the presence of a medical examiner. He worked two part-time jobs in the 1920s, as a lawyer and as a deputy coroner within East London. During this period he married Beryl Chapman, with whom he had two children. In 1930, upon the retirement of the coroner Sir Walter Schröder, Bentley Purchase won appointment as a full-fledged coroner. His jurisdiction shifted over different neighborhoods within London, but always included the broad area of dense population from the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

on the southwest to

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

toward the northeast. Purchase served as an official coroner within London from 1930 until 1958, winding down in that year by moving his office from London to

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. Purchase served in office as the Ipswich coroner until his death in 1961, which occurred by mishap. Attempting to repair his

television antenna A television antenna (TV aerial) is an antenna specifically designed for use with a television receiver (TV) to receive over-the-air broadcast television signals from a television station. Television reception is dependent upon the antenna as ...

, the lawyer-physician tumbled from the roof of his private home. He was aged 70.

Significant cases

As coroner, Purchase held approximately 20,000 inquests into deaths that, in his medico-legal judgement, deserved formal inquiry. In cases where the cause of death was unknown or where inquiries were required to assist the police, Purchase worked closely with specialists in

forensic pathology Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a corpse. A post mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases an ...

such as

Bernard Spilsbury Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury (16 May 1877 – 17 December 1947) was a British pathologist. His cases include Hawley Crippen, the Seddon case, the Major Armstrong poisoning, the "Brides in the Bath" murders by George Joseph Smith, the Crumbles ...

and Keith Simpson. Murder cases inquired into by Purchase included homicides committed by John Christie and

John Haigh John George Haigh (; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his ...

. Also as coroner, Purchase provided a corpse in 1943 for use in Operation Mincemeat. The World War II special operation centered on the release in Spanish territorial waters of a body dressed in the uniform of a British marine officer-courier. The body was supposed to be carrying top-secret planning documents in preparation for Anglo-American operations in the Mediterranean Sea. As a

counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

initiative, the operation pointed German military intelligence, the

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

, toward locations far away from the Allies' true target of Sicily. The German armed forces did not take steps to establish tactical air command over Sicily at the time of the Allies' amphibious assault, and Operation Mincemeat is said to have saved thousands of lives.

Legacy and honours

During his active life in London, Bentley Purchase was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1949. Upon the winding-down of his responsibilities in 1958, he accepted a knighthood. After his death in 1961, a friendly

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

(Robert Jackson, ''Coroner: the Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase'', London: George G. Harrap and Co.), was published in 1963. Purchase was played by

Paul Ritter Simon Paul Adams (20 December 1966 – 5 April 2021), known professionally as Paul Ritter, was an English actor. He had roles in films including ''Son of Rambow'' (2007), '' Quantum of Solace'' (2008), ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' ...

in the 2022 film ''

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purchase, Bentley 1890 births 1961 deaths British coroners British Army personnel of World War I Royal Artillery officers Recipients of the Military Cross Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge People from Luton Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Inner Temple