Walter Simon Andrews was a British policeman. He was one of three inspectors (the other two being Frederick Abberline

Frederick Abberline

Frederick George Abberline was a Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police and was a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

 and Henry Moore

Henry Moore (policeman)

Henry Moore was a British policeman from Northamptonshire. He joined the London Metropolitan Police Service on 26 April 1869, was promoted to Sergeant on 29 August 1872, and became an Inspector on 25 August 1878...

) who were sent from Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

 to Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

 in 1888 to strengthen the investigation of the Whitechapel murders.

He was born in Boulge

Boulge

Boulge is a hamlet and civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal district of Suffolk, England. It is about north of Woodbridge.Boulge church is the burial place of famous local poet/writer Edward Fitzgerald, whose most famous work was the translation The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.-External links:*...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, and married Jane Carr on 4 August 1867. He joined the London Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

 on 15 November 1869, and rose through the ranks. He was promoted to Detective Sergeant on 18 November 1875, and to Inspector on 6 July 1878.

In December 1888, he escorted a prisoner, Roland Gideon alias Israel Barnet, from London to Toronto, where Barnet was wanted for financial crimes. While in North America, Andrews was sent to New York City, perhaps to trace Francis Tumblety

Francis Tumblety

Francis Tumblety was an Irish-American who earned a small fortune posing as an "Indian Herb" doctor throughout the United States and Canada. He was a notorious self-promoter and was often in trouble with the law. He was put forward as a suspect in the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders. -Early...

, a notorious charlatan who had fled to the United States after jumping bail in England on charges of gross indecency. The newspapers assumed, probably wrongly, that Tumblety was a suspect in the Whitechapel murders. The New York City Police, who had Tumblety under surveillance, said "there is no proof of his complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he is under bond in London is not extraditable". Andrews returned to London without securing an extradition.

Andrews retired in 1889. At the age of 52, he committed suicide by hanging at Horndean

Horndean

Horndean is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 8 miles north of Portsmouth.The nearest railway station is 2.2 miles southeast of the village at Rowlands Castle....

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

.