Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

Sir Archibald Bodkin KCB By http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw110761/Sir-Archibald-Henry-Bodkin, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33709801 “CRIMES OF VIOLENCE ON THE INCREASE” Such was the headline in The Times on 4 th February 1920.  Sir Archibald Bodkin prosecuting a case at the Old Bailey  told the jury: “The case was another illustration of the violence now employed by persons who were out to commit crimes,  It is impossible to shut one’s eyes to the fact that violence was resorted to far more frequently than it used to be” (1) Bodkin was on the verge of being appointed Director of Public Prosecutions and was a lawyer who was particularly worried about literature which,  in his view, promoted immorality.  But of relevance here is the fact that the case he was prosecuting was one that featured the Midland Railway Police (whose Chief appeared in blog earlier this week). West Ham station must have seemed like a long w...

  The second of my recent purchases is a clipping from Modern Transport Magazine from January 1949.   The article describes the new Railway Police School at Walton on the Hill, Tadworth, Surrey.   It expresses a hope that the opening of the school would bring a consistency to the training of officers from the various railway police forces which had come together as a result of the nationalisation of public transport.   The new force didn’t really have a name (sometimes described as the British Railways Police) at this stage and it took the passage of the British Transport Commission Act later in the year for the BTC Police to emerge in a form that we would still recognise. The article contains some photographs and a description of the tasks facing the railway police in the post war period.   It points out that it was the second largest force in the country with around 4,000 officers.   ‘Tadworth’ as it was universally known became the jewel in the rathe...

  I recently gave way to temptation and bought a couple of cheap historic items on ebay.   The first is a cyclostyled letter from the General Manager’s office of the Midland Railway at Derby dated December 1910.   It advises the recipient that Major J A Henderson had been appointed as Superintendent of Police for the Midland Railway in place of Major L Sandwith.   Clearly the outgoing and incoming Chiefs knew each other – 8 years earlier Major Sandwith had taken over the post held by Henderson in the 8 th Hussars (1).   Henderson had served in the Boar War and had been a career soldier.     Major Sandwith appears to have continued with the Midland Railway in an administrative role after retiring as Chief of Police. Major John Acheson Henderson DSO OBE (always know as J A Henderson) served as Chief of Police for the Midland until 1923.   After the creation of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) he was, for a short period, in command ...