In 1871, a seven-year-old boy was recorded as a scholar, living with his family in a court dwelling in Aston, Birmingham. An ordinary start, in an ordinary working-class home.
By his mid-thirties, the city had formally banned him from every pub and registered club in Birmingham, circulating his photograph to every publican in the district. The newspapers called him "Dirty Dick."
What happened between the classroom and the blacklist is a story of drink, desperation, and a system that punished what it couldn't fix. This is his story, told through the records that survived him.
