Pc 181 James (Jim) Hughes LMS Police Euston (Picture: John Bull Magazine)
For much of its published life John Bull magazine was a
pretty unpleasant publication. It was a
sort of Daily Mail on steroids. A
nationalistic and populist publication it had, after a re-launch, calmed down
by the late 1940s. The edition for the
week ending 18th December 1948 has recently been acquired by the
British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) after being identified as being
of interest by the indefatigable Steve Beamon.
This edition contains an article entitled ‘POLICEMAN ON THE
PLATFORM’ and is based on an interview with Pc 181 Jim Hughes, at Euston
Station. At the time of publication the
British Transport Commission had existed for only a few months and it would
probably be accurate to describe Pc Hughes as an officer of the London Midland
Railway Police (LMS), the force he had joined from the army on 17th June 1929.
The article explains to the reader the differences between
the railway and the ‘regular’ police and describes the sort of work that Pc
Hughes was involved in. We can learn a
lot about some of the basics of railway policing at the time. For example, pay started at £310 per
year. A pension scheme had been
introduced in 1943 and officers had recently been granted the right to wear a
crown on their helmet plates (although we know that other railway forces had previously
worn a crown so he may have been talking only of the LMS Police).
Hughes tells his interviewer about his routine work
including dealing with robberies, prostitutes and deserters from the armed forces,
as well as the numerous larcenies that have always plagued railway stations. He describes the relationship with the Metropolitan
Police including a minor ‘blue on blue’ incident at Dalston Junction
Station. Dalston is in East London but
it was operated by the LMS out of Broad Street.
Some things are slow to change.
Even in the 1980s the station was policed by the Midland Division of BTP
rather than by the Eastern in recognition of the line’s origins.
We know quite a lot about Jim Hughes because his police
service record survives and this gives us enough information to trace him in
census records and in the 1939 Register (1).
He was born in 1902 in Liverpool and served in the Coldstream Guards
before joining the force. He joined
because he met a friend who was already serving. As the reporter put it ‘Jim Hughes was broke,
he had a go’. By this time he was married and in 1939 he was living in Alderney
Street, Pimlico, not far from Victoria Station.
He picked up a number of commendations during his career,
mainly for the detection of railway thieves, but in the article he describes an
incident that does not warrant a mention in his record:
“ Jim’s most terrifying
experience as a railway policeman occurred during the war. Backing on to the line outside Euston was a
stable full of horses. A stick of bombs
blew a crater in the line and blasted some of the horses down the embankment
into the crater. Before anyone could go
to the rescue the Royal Scot (2) came up the track and hurtled into the crater
on top of them. Jim was engaged on
rescue work for 48 hours non stop. He
even assisted in taking the engine fireman’s arm off at the shoulder with a
penknife”
War creates extraordinary challenges and places people in
situations almost unimaginable for those of us who have lived our lives in
peace and security. Many police officers
have found themselves confronting trauma, but the horrors faced by Jim Hughes
and his colleagues on that day in 1940 was of a magnitude that we hope sits
firmly in the past.
The section describing the bombing concludes:
“..he
went home to find his own house blitzed and in ruins”
To work for 48 hours at the scene of a major incident and
then to return home to find devastation must have made a lasting impact.
Alderney Street Pimlico October 1940. Jim Hughes lived at No 125 (Photo: Westminster Archives)
Jim provides a brief history lesson to the reporter relating
how the very early railway police “in beards and top hats” combined the duties
of a policeman with those of hand signalling trains. He was clearly proud of the long history of
the railway police and it is nice to see that interest in our history is, in itself,
not a new thing.
Jim’s candid interview did not do his career much harm. Two years after his moment of fame he
transferred to Paddington and Marylebone and then to Victoria. The creation of the BTC Police made such
moves straightforward compared to the days of independent railway forces.
Jim retired in 1962 having served for 33 years. He immediately re-joined as a Security Warden
at Waterloo. Security Wardens were
unsworn staff providing a security presence at vulnerable locations. At the time they were part of the BTC Police.
He died in service in 1963.
In 1948 Jim expressed a hope that railway police allowances
would be brought into line with other forces.
As he put it “It’s all part of the process from being a fully bearded
signalman to being a fairly competent civil servant”. He sounds like quite a character. BTP officers still do not have a statutory
right to parity of pay with other forces, although parity has been honoured
since the Wright Report of 1979.
Allowances on the other hand are still not quite there.
Pc 181 James Hughes was of a generation that we can only
admire. Faced with great dangers and
little reward they worked hard for their families and the country. They did so
with a sense of purpose and a sense of humour.
The officers that have come after them stand on the
shoulders of giants.
Philip Trendall
May 2022
Notes
(1)
The 1939 Register was a form of census taken
just after the start of the Second World War.
In an example of administrative excellence and expedition, it listed all
domestic households in the country. It was
used for the issue of Ration and ID Cards and formed the basis of registration
for the post war NHS. He was updated by
hand into the 1990s.
(2)
The Royal Scot was a regular railway express
service that ran on the West Coast Mainline between Euston and Glasgow.
Harris, W. (1948, December 18). Policeman on the Platform. John
Bull, p. 11.
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