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Midland Railway Police - A New Chief for 1910

 







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 8th 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 of the Midland Division of the new LMS Police (2).  He led the force through the period in the lead up to, and recovery from, the First World War as well as the unsettling preparations for the company and force mergers that occurred in 1923.

During the Great War he had returned to serve in the army, being mentioned in dispatches four times in addition to the awards of DSO and OBE.

He was born in Ireland and could be described as being rather well off.  He was the son of a senior barrister (KC) and he was educated at a fairly well known public (ie private) school –  at the time of his death he left over £37,000.

Like many police forces at the time the Midland Railway Police had been commanded by several ex-military officers.  Thirty years earlier the company had appointed an experienced police officer from the Metropolitan Police, John Meiklejohn, to lead the railway detectives. This proved to be a disaster when he was convicted of corruption offences at the Old Bailey as part of the Turf Fraud Scandal.

Henderson was 60 when he left the railway police.  At the time of the 1921 census he was the only occupant of a flat in Mayfair, although his place of work was given as Derby (the HQ of the Midland Railway) (3).  He was paid £985 pa, a reasonable amount to supplement his army pension, it was just less than the pay of a railway Assistant District Goods Manager. (4).  He was a single man when he retired but married for the first time at the age of 66 in 1930 (5)  He died in Devon in 1946 (6)

 

Philip Trendall

May 2024

 

 

(1)    Evening Standard 25 Oct 1902 p2

(2)    Nottingham Evening Post 02 Feb 1924 p5

(3)    1921 Census: 6 Albermarle Street RG15 00449 Viewed Find My Past 13 May 2024

(4)   The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Collection: London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company: Staff Records; Class: RAIL426; Piece: 10

Ancestry.com. UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. – Viewed 14 May 2024

(5)   London Metropolitan Archives; London, England, UK; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P69/BAT3/A/01/MS6779/9 – viewed on line at Ancestry.co.uk, 14 May 2024

(6)  GRO:  Deaths 1946: Mar Devon Central 05B 80

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