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Pay Parity in the Early Days of Railway Policing

 




One of the great battles in the history of railway policing has been the pursuit of equality of pay and conditions with territorial forces.  Despite the Wright Committee Report in 1979 (which led to pay parity) there is still no statutory obligation on BTP to pay its officers the same as officers in other forces.  Indeed the allowances and pension arrangements are still not as generous.  As recently as 2018 claims supported by the Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales for back pay of allowances to ensure parity was rejected by the Chief Constable and Police Authority.

I was then rather pleased to read the Essex Standard of the 30 November 1838 which reported that the Directors of the Eastern Counties Railway (the pre-cursor to the Great Eastern Railway and then the LNER) had attended the Petty Sessions (Magistrates Court) at Ilford to update the Bench on their plans for policing.  The Justices were keen to know when police would be introduced on the line and where they would be stationed.  The Directors reported that the first officers were ready to be sworn under the ‘new act’.  This Act, the Eastern Counties Railways Act 1836, is an early example of legislation allowing the appointment of railway police.  In s241 the company was allowed to nominate Special Constables to the Justices ‘for the preservation of the peace and the security of persons and property’  Their powers to extend to 500 yards beyond the railway boundary.  The Directors produced the first officers to the court.  The policy of the company was that officers should have served in the forces and that ‘they were to be selected solely for their merits and character…and to be of quiet demeanour’.  The uniform consisted of ‘a blue coat and trousers with yellow facings to the coat and a leather belt around the waist’.  The new officers were sworn.  The Chairman of the bench addressed them and congratulated them upon their appointment.  He also enquired about pay and was told that the intention was that they were to be paid at the same rate as the Metropolitan Police.  The bench expressed their approbation at these arrangements and told the new recruits that ‘they would also find the bench ready to support them in any just cause they might bring before them’.

The railway itself didn’t open until 1839 and we don’t know the identity of the new officers, or their fate.  Perhaps a little more research will help fill in the gaps.  In the meantime it is good to see that equality of pay is nothing new for the railway police.

Philip Trendall

February 2023

 

 

"ILFORD PETTY SESSION." Essex Standard, 30 Nov. 1838. British Library Newspapers, link.gale.com/apps/doc/R3208401105/BNCN?u=anglia_itw&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=c1b8a64f. Accessed 9 Feb. 2023.

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