Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

    An RAF Sopwith Dolphin 1918.  This was one of the aircraft flown by 13 Sqn (Picture:  RAF Museum) The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the oldest independent air force in the world.   It was founded on 1 st April 1918 on the merger of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC).   One of the officers that transferred from the RFC was temporary second lieutenant James Seymour STRINGER, he was 25 years of age (1) (2). STRINGER was no stranger to life in uniform.   At the outbreak of the war he was a constable in the Hull and Barnsley Railway Police.   We know very little of his time with the force except that it was very short. At the age of 14 STRINGER joined the East Yorkshire Regiment at Beverley giving his previous occupation as clerk.   He was 5 feet 2 and "a quarter" inches tall and weighed about 7 stone.   In 1910 he became a Drummer and served in India.   His service record tells us that he contracted ...

  It appear that Horwood's decorations ended up in a sale in the USA in 2018 - this image (Copyright owner unknown) is from a set of images posted on line by the purchaser together with pictures of Horwood's  sword and original army commission.   Note this image will be removed at the request of the copyright owner. We are used to seeing senior officers bearing a few medals and decorations but none in living memory have been in the same league as the most famous railway police chief. By the time of the First World War the North Eastern Railway Police were among the best organised in the country.   At   start of war the Chief,   Captain William T F HORWOOD, was soon back in the army and rose quickly through the ranks ending up as Provost Marshall with the rank of Brigadier General.   His swift upward progress during the war is frequently mentioned in the newspapers.   The NER kept his job open until the end of the war but he was headhunted i...