Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

  The new road named after Lord Hamilton of the Great Eastern Railway The newish road outside Hertford East railway Station is named after a former chairman of the Great Eastern Railway; Claud HAMILTON.   I recall that there was a large building at Liverpool Street Station (demolished in the 1980s) that was also named after him.   His reputation looms large in railway history.   He was also a Member of Parliament and a peer.   When I see the new road sign I think not of Hamilton himself but of his role in a sorry tale that led to a well respected railway policeman losing his job. We often celebrate the coming of the police federation in general and the railway police federation in particular.   The early pioneers of representation faced many challenges but were only allowed to exist because of the chaos brought about by agitation in the police service after the First World War.   The idea that police officers could be members of trades unions seems a...

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 polic...