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 would be
introduced for the over 70s. WRIGHT
never got as far as a pension, dying in office, but he left effects in his will
worth a little over £2,000.
WRIGHT joined the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire
Railway Police (the forerunner of the Great Central Railway) on 22nd
August 1856. He was the first Superintendent
of police on a salary of £200 a year – about average for the rank across the
Borough and County forces. This had
risen to £250 by 1897. He could afford
one young servant in 1891.
But his police career had started even earlier. Various reports claim that he joined the
Metropolitan Police in either 1838 or 1839, giving him a total of nearly 60
years police service. On leaving the Met he served in the Hull police.
Like officers of his rank all over England he was
responsible for prosecuting cases before the magistrates. At this level most of the cases were routine
ones relating to drunkenness, theft, fare evasion and trespass. Occasionally his duties brought him before
the assizes including in one case in 1859 of a serious obstruction of the
railway. The defendant was a ten year
old boy who had been arrested by WRIGHT. The railway company, through their
counsel and from the evidence of Superintendent WRIGHT, asked for no punishment
to be inflicted saying that they had instituted the prosecution only to
safeguard the public. In sentencing the boy to 3 months imprisonment the Judge
suggested that the law could be improved by providing whipping as an additional
penalty. The railway provisions of the
Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the mirror legislation in the
Malicious Damage Act of the same year are still in use and the penalties have
been amended several times, but the beating of children has never been thought to
be an essential element of keeping the railway safe.
The overlap between railway and canal policing mirrors the
history of those modes of transport.
WRIGHT prosecuted at least one boatman for offences committed in the
canal basin at Sheffield.
In 1884 our subject was one of the passengers injured in the
railway accident at Penistone in Yorkshire. He was lucky not to be one of the
24 killed when a train derailed and ran down an embankment. The details of his involvement are unknown but
he would appear to have been badly affected by the accident. Penistone is something of an accident
blackspot with several serious accidents recorded in the vicinity, the most
recent incident occurring in 2021. Of
course, there have been several railway
accidents that have seen senior railway police officers as passengers. In more recent times these have included Clapham
Junction and Polmont.
James WRIGHT was born before the system for the registration
of births existed. On joining the MS&L
Railway police he declared his age as 36, giving him a date of birth in
1820. Later, his staff record, quoting
his membership of a provident society, suggests he was born in 1826, although
if he joined the Met in 1838/39 the earlier date of birth would necessary.
On 19th January 1897 WRIGHT was the guest of
honour at a large dinner in London given by the Police Superintendents of the
various railway companies from all over Great Britain. Officers of the Metropolitan and provincial
forces were also in attendance. In the
previous year he had been presented with a silver cigar case, other articles of
plate and an illuminated address by the officers of the Lincolnshire
Constabulary, to mark his long service. He was also honoured by the Yorkshire forces who presented him with a diamond ring as a token of their esteem.
He died from diabetes, at home in Sheffield on 15th
April 1898.His funeral took place on 19th April 1898. It was well attended with representatives of
railway companies, railway and local police forces, family and friends in
attendance. His coffin was carried by
detectives and uniformed police officers from the Great Central Railway.
We do not know why he served for so long but his record of
service as a superintendent is unlikely to be exceeded in the modern age. He
was predeceased by his wife and son. His estate went to his grandson. Policing in Victorian England was a tough
career, but clearly it was one in which James Wright excelled.
Philip Trendall
January 2022
SOURCES
Office National Statistics
Railway Obstruction. (1859). Lincolnshire Chronicle,
29 Jul., p.3.
The Late Superintendent Wright. (1898). Sheffield
Telegraph, 20 Apr., p.7.
www.sheffieldindexers.com/BurialRecords
Supt James Wright. (1897). Police Review and Parade
Gossip, 5(214), p.50.
Census records at www.findmypast.co.uk
Railway staff records at www.Ancestry.co.uk
Nominal Roll – British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG)
Probate and Will [1898] (Wakefield) Will dated
30 03 1895.
England , General Register Office, Deaths [1898], WRIGHT, James, Sheffield Quarter June, Vol 09C Page 311
Inspector James Bell was 78 years old when he retired from the Bute Dock Police at Cardiff on 31.12.1914 after 49 years service. Since July 1914 every member of the force had been on 12 hour shifts seven days a week. A situation that lasted until March 1919. Not a man had a single day off in five and a half years. There were several funerals during the early weeks of 1919 though whether that were due to weariness or the flu outbreak is not known.
ReplyDeleteSource: Bute Dock Police General Orders