Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

  The Daily Telegraph has reported that the British Transport Police intend to fund a bursary for black students to study law to ‘make amends’ for the actions of a corrupt officer (DS Ridgewell) and his associates nearly 50 years ago.   Ridgewell was corrupt.   He fitted up innocent young black men (The Oval Four and the Stockwell Six etc), was involved with organised crime groups and he stole large amounts of property.   The story of his downfall, imprisonment and death is well known but it is only in the last couple of years that the cases have come before the Court of Appeal which has quashed numerous convictions.   Ridgewell also targeted white men (including other serving officers) but the impact on the black community transcends even the horrors experienced by the victims of his crimes.   Nearly half a century on the issues caused by police corruption and racism of the 1970s still casts a long shadow. The Chief Constable of BTP is quoted as saying: ...

  I was never very good at managing people. I am a fan of the direct approach but there are limits and, in the end, most of the time leaders are trying to take their people with them. A carrot and stick approach is normally required. There are even times when a pure stick approach could be argued for. My ineffectual musings along these lines come from my latest excursions in the archives of the British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG). The memorandum below was clearly meant to raise standards – I wonder what inspired its creation and I wonder how successful it was (I think I know the answer). I am sure that there is no gossiping in the modern police service (!), although the phrase ‘general slackness’ did come to mind yesterday when I saw a group of officers from a large police force standing in close proximity to each other while they all stared at their telephones. But before I descend into full grumpy old person mode I would say that in a...

  I spent an interesting few hours today doing some research and, as always, I was distracted by other issues.   I was reading the Annual Report of the Chief Constable of British Transport Police for 1973 and what caught my eye was the section on terrorism.   From time to time I get the impression that some people think that terrorism was invented only a few years ago.   The lethal terrorist campaigns of earlier decades are often forgotten. In 1973 the RAILWAY in Great Britain saw: 5                           IEDs explode 5                            IEDs defused 1,314                   Telephone Bomb Threats 715  ...

PUNCH 1847 A DANGEROUS CHARACTER Policeman Sibthorpe. “Come, it’s High Time You Were taken to the House; You’ve Done Quite Mischief Enough”   For many years PUNCH was a popular and successful magazine, famous for the quality of its content and the ingenuity of its artwork.  Its influence extended far beyond its circulation and many people were surprised when it closed in 1992.  An attempt a few years later to revive the title failed.  PUNCH was a satirical magazine. It regularly lampooned the ‘railway mania’ of the mid nineteenth century.  It also used satire as a vector of comment on politicians and society figures.  There were many references to the railway throughout the magazine’s run and I will make other references to railway police related cartoons in future blogs. The above cartoon shows an early locomotive with a face, hands and feet being ‘arrested’ by Policeman Sibthorpe, who is dressed in early (railway?) police uniform with a top hat and holdin...

                                      Pc 181 James (Jim) Hughes LMS Police Euston                                                 (Picture:  John Bull Magazine) For much of its published life John Bull magazine was a pretty unpleasant publication.   It was a sort of Daily Mail on steroids.   A nationalistic and populist publication it had, after a re-launch, calmed down by the late 1940s.   The edition for the week ending 18 th December 1948 has recently been acquired by the British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) after being identified as being of interest by the indefatigable Steve Beamon.   This edition contains an article entitled ‘POLICEMAN ON THE PLATFORM’ and is ba...

  Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway:  Policeman's Report 7th May 1984:  BTPHG Collection The BTPHG has recently acquired, thanks to the ever watchful Steve Beamon, a single page document dated 7 th May 1842. It is a 180 years old this week.   It is a police report sheet from the Glasgow,Paisley and Greenock Railway.   The instructions on the sheet remind officers that they “are forbidden to cross the lines themselves, or allow others to do so, in front of an approaching Engine; or to stand within three feet of the Rails”.   They were also required to patrol the track looking for faults and obstructions. Two policeman have signed the sheet, covering the east and west directions.   A third signature appears at the bottom of the page. The GPandGR was short lived.   It opened in 1841 and by the end of the decade it had merged into the Caledonian Railway.   This document comes from the early days of the railway and this is evidenced by th...

  The British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) is to hold a modest Open Day on Thursday 13 th October 2022 .   Full details will be available nearer the time, but it will be an opportunity for the Group to display items that represent the history of policing the railways, docks and canals of the UK.   BTPHG holds its own collection of material (as distinct from anything in the possession of the British Transport Police) because small groups of volunteers have worked over many years to save paperwork and artefacts that the force wanted to throw away.   Since those dark days additions to the collection have been acquired by donation and purchase.   Although far from being comprehensive the collections give an insight into the long and difficult history of policing the country’s transport networks.   It is likely that the Open Day will also include a number of talks and short presentations.   This will not be an event open to the general public...