Skip to main content

Pc William Henry WILSON - GER Police


The GER Memorial at Liverpool Street in its current location.  William Henry WILSON is recorded in the main list of names.  The Memorial was opened by Field Marshal Sir Henry WILSON (no relation) in 1922.  He was murdered by the IRA on the same day and a separate plaque to him can be seen on the bottom right of the photograph.


The huge cyber attack on the British Library has brought a halt to my slow trawl through Police Review but I have been able to find a couple of volumes from 1914 and 1915.

The impact of the declaration of war in August 1914 on the police forces of the United Kingdon was immediate and massive.  Large number of police officers who were reservists left their jobs to re-join the armed forces.  They were replaced by hastily attested Special Constables.  This was true of the railway police forces as it was for the county, metropolitan and borough constabularies.

Inevitably it wasn’t long before Police Review is full of reports of police officers in the army and navy, closely followed by news of casualties. 

We can’t be sure of who the first railway policeman was to fall in the Great War but it is most likely to have been Pc William Henry WILSON of the Great Eastern Railway Police  (Liverpool Street) who was killed 23 August 1914 at the Battle of the Canal during the German assault on Mons.  William Henry WILSON had only been in the force for a couple of years, he previously worked as a horse keeper for the railway.  He had originally joined the army in 1903 and, as a reservist, he returned to the colours as a private in the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), when war was declared on 4th August 1914. 

Pc WILSON was aged 29 when he was killed.  A single man, he lived with his parents in Homerton, east London.   His Mother received a (very) small weekly pension until at least the mid 1920s.  Pte/Pc WILSON has no known grave.  He name appears on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial at LA FERTE-SOUS-JOUARRE MEMORIAL.  His sacrifice is also recorded on the fine memorial at Liverpool Street Station.  The British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) has his name recorded on the Roll of Honour of railway, dock and canal police officers who gave their lives during years 1914-1918.  BTPHG has done a great job in ensuring that officers killed on duty and during the world wars are commemorated.

We will remember them.

 

Phil Trendall

January 2024

 

Sources

Police Review and Parade Gossip Vol XXIII Issue 1149, 01 Jan 1915 P10

1911 Census

The records of the Commonwealth War Garves Commission

The website of the British Transport Police History Group:  www.btphg.org.uk

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Give me a firm place to stand.........

  Is policing better today than it was 50 years ago?   Is this even a valid question?   My answer to both is   straightforward: ‘I don’t know’.   I suspect that most things are better and some things have declined but generally it is the sort of question that can take up a lot of time and enough hot air to power a dirigible.   I really DON’T want to start a debate on this because what concerns me most is my own shifting perspective.   As a grumpy git I find the sight of scruffy police officers looking bored and staring at their telephones really annoying.   I don’t understand why wearing a traditional helmet is so difficult and I don’t like the rather lightweight approach to discipline.   On the other hand my professional dealings with police officers show me that modern officers are bright, caring, thoughtful and determined to do the right thing.   As events demonstrate there is no shortage of brave people in today’s service. The horrors of racism and misogyny still haunt the service
Post a Comment
Read more

Law and History 2: JUST THE SAME AS OTHER FORCES?

  Reading through this before posting makes me fear that it is not historical enough for this blog and trespasses into contemporary issues.   So be it.   But I do feel it necessary to remind readers that this blog does NOT represent the view of the BTPHG.   These ramblings are mine alone. It is rarely accurate to say that history repeats itself, but it is true that somethings that we think are settled in the past return to challenge us again. When I was a serving police officer in BTP I saw a steady evolution in the status of the force.   The achievements of officers, particularly in facing the ‘decade of disasters’ (1980s) and the acknowledged expertise of BTP in dealing with certain classes of activity (terrorism, theft person, theft of goods in transit, major incident response, football disorder etc) all led to an increasing recognition that BTP was an equal member of the police family.   In concrete terms this had been marked by the recommendation of the Wright Committee into the
1 comment
Read more

Police Review & Parade Gossip 1902/3

  I have, at long last, returned to my project of searching early editions of Police Review & Parade Gossip for items relating to the Rail, Dock and Canal (RDC) Policing.   I have run into a couple of years where the index (which was compiled at the end of end calendar year) is missing which means I have had no choice but to go through every page of every edition.   Police Review was a weekly publication that described itself as ‘The Organ of the British Constabulary’.   It provides a valuable insight into the issues that concerned police officers and the public. So, what were the big questions of the early Edwardian period?   Well, questions of law make a frequent appearance together with operational demands.   The delay to the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902 (he was ill) led to a lot of operational angst.   Even today mutual aid brings challenges but imagine what it was like when there were 243 forces (i) covering England, Scotland and Wales.   Assaults on officers were at a v
Post a Comment
Read more