Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

  The British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) is to hold a modest Open Day on Thursday 13 th October 2022 .   Full details will be available nearer the time, but it will be an opportunity for the Group to display items that represent the history of policing the railways, docks and canals of the UK.   BTPHG holds its own collection of material (as distinct from anything in the possession of the British Transport Police) because small groups of volunteers have worked over many years to save paperwork and artefacts that the force wanted to throw away.   Since those dark days additions to the collection have been acquired by donation and purchase.   Although far from being comprehensive the collections give an insight into the long and difficult history of policing the country’s transport networks.   It is likely that the Open Day will also include a number of talks and short presentations.   This will not be an event open to the general public, but admission is probably going

  While searching the index to the material held by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) I stumbled across a couple of items relevant to this blog.   Film footage can sometimes feel like a peep hole into the past.   Each individual that appears would have had their own story to tell.   Perhaps this is a theme I will return to in relation to the footage which catches – sometimes only in passing – railway, dock or canal police officers. The two IWM clips that caught my eye were: A 1942 film showing war work being carried out by women on the Southern Railway.   Includes a shot of a member of WPC, Southern Railway Police directing traffic at Waterloo.   The commentary reflects the social assumptions of the time.   https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060021182   A silent 1940 film about the evacuation of children.   Shows footage at the front of St Pancras Station with police officers including an LMS Sergeant. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060021257