Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

 Further to my post about James WRIGHT and the claim, in 1898, that he was the oldest railway policeman I am indebted to the BTPHG Webmaster, Martin McKay, for drawing my attention to the excellent article by Kevin Gordon about an officer who carried on serving until he was 80 in 1935.   Another correspondent warns me that with the demands on the pension system growing year on year serving until the age of 80 might become routine! Kevin's article is well worth reading:   https://www.btphg.org.uk/?page_id=5634

  The provision of housing has never been much of an issue for railway and dock officers. Although there are examples of accommodation being provided it was never on the scale common in county and borough forces.  All gone of course. One year’s balance sheet boosted by sales of assets that are now worth millions.  The problems of police officers affording a place live dogs many forces and BTP continues to suffers from a lack of parity over allowances.  In this context I was interested to see the approach to this subject by the authorities at the end of the Victorian period.  Whilst the great and good of Warwickshire acknowledged the need for police housing in Birmingham they were rather insistent that it should not be too luxurious, lest it rendered constables ‘unfit’ for work.  I particularly like the comment about sending officers to Madeira.  Having recently returned from that island I can testify to its health giving atmosphere.  The report inspired a number of follow up letters fr

                                            Photograph: Police Review and Parade Gossip 03 Sep 1897 In 1898 Superintendent James WRIGHT, Chief of the Great Central Railway Police, died.   He was 77 years old, (but see below). At the time of his death the newspapers proclaimed that he was the oldest serving railway policemen in the country.   It’s a well know fact that Superintendents have an easy life but 77 is a bit much, especially in a time when the average life expectancy for a male infant aged one year was 46.   Of course, life expectancy figures are skewed by high rates of infant mortality.   At birth James WRIGHT had a life expectancy of just 41 years. The railway police were not covered by the pension provisions of the Police Act 1890 and instead each railway company made its own arrangements with special benevolent funds being established and financed by subscriptions and donations from police officers.   It was to be another 10 years before a national old age pension wo

 This photograph pops up on social media from time to time.  I am not sure where it originated but it is normally described as gas training for Brighton Police and for the Southern Railway Police.  It is the sort of photograph that lends itself to a caption contest but this is not my intention here, although a few suggestions do come to mind. There are a few files in the National Archives describing the the arrangements for anti gas training for railway police (eg  MEPO 2/3024) and during the war itself a debate took place about the type of respirators that should be issued to the railway police. For many the issuing of respirators brought home the fact that the UK was about to face total war.  The civilian services suffered significant losses and worked themselves beyond the point of exhaustion in their efforts to protect the population.  The record of the railway and dock police forces in this regard was second to none. We owe that generation a great debt. Respirators were again issu

                                                                                         The title page of the first edition of Police Review Police Review , or Police Review and Parade Gossip to use its original title, was the most important magazine of its type for well over a century.   From 1893 to 2011 it covered news stories and other subjects relating to the police.   It is still missed by serving and retired officers.   At first it proclaimed that it was the ‘Organ of the British Constabulary’.   It never claimed to be the ‘official organ’.   It was an independent voice.   Independent of the government, independent of Chief Constables, Watch Committees, Police Authorities and the Federation.   At various times it upset all of those groups and perhaps this was the true measure of its success. Within three years of its first publication the format of the magazine settled into a pattern that changed little in a century.   Each edition contained news, features, articles on the l

As an amateur historian of transport policing I often come across snippets of information that I think are worth sharing. I am an active member of the British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) but this is NOT an official product of that Group. BTPHG's website:  www.btphg.org.uk    is full of useful information and links and I recommend that anybody with an interest in the subject visits it regularly. I also intend to use this blog to give my own views on related subjects. The study of police history is not without controversy and it may be that I will sometimes touch on areas where there is not a general consensus. So be it, but I will always seek to avoid offence and  I will be interested in hearing alternative views. The railways and docks of Great Britain have played, and continue to play, an important role in society.  It is rather surprising therefore that the policing of these locations is somehow seen as secondary to the history of crime and policing in the towns