Best Websites
Jonathan Scott tracks down websites for researching men and women in the service
Track down records of police ancestors online
Although France’s Gendarmerie can trace its history back to the Middle Ages, in Britain modern policing really began in 1749, when London magistrate and Tom Jones author Henry Fielding employed six men from his office at 4 Bow Street in Covent Garden, Westminster. The Bow Street Runners, as they became known, would be dispatched from Fielding’s office, not to patrol streets as such but to serve writs or arrest offenders, sometimes travelling long distances in order to apprehend criminals.
The next key date in the British policing timeline is 1798, when the Marine Police was formed to protect cargo on the River Thames, followed by the City of Glasgow Police (1800) and London Metropolitan Police (1829).
Today law enforcement is carried out by officers in regional services, alongside national and specialist units. As you might expect, both the survival of and access to police records vary from county to county, and while lots of police material will be looked after by the local record office, some material may still reside with the county force.
HERTS PAST POLICING
w hertspastpolicing.org.uk
Formal policing in Hertfordshire started in 1836, with the creation of both Hertford Borough Police and the St Albans Borough Police. The combined Hertfordshire Constabulary was founded five years later and covered the rest of the county (aside from parts under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police). This website is frankly fascinating, with material drawn from police archives, as well as newspaper reports and court records. The ‘Document Collection’ page has officers’ journals, occurrence books and duty registers from around the First World War searchable by keyword, date or police officer. The ‘Police Jargon’ page is also enlightening, with details of rank and hierarchy, as well as a dizzying array of acronyms.