X William HARRISONDear ShirleyThe more I look at this the more I think this isyour man William, but first I have to point out afew things. Sadly we do not have a photograph,that is to say we may, there are literallyhundreds of photographs of officers, but theirnames were never recorded on the reverse of thephotograph so from the Museums perspective theyremain unidentifiable.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester.As a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher I am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolumes 1 and 2. The information regarding hismarriage should be retained in CJP24/2 1847-1966,but I will comment on this a little later.Further, there are 33 Volumes each containingapproximately 400 pages of General Orders, theseare basically the everyday events of the CheshireConstabulary and date from April 1857 to 1946,they are also normally held at the Record Officein Chester under reference CJP4, however they arepresently held by the Museum. Each Volume ishandwritten and although they can be scanned theycannot be searched to extract the information asthe character recognition software just does notrecognise handwriting. They are therefore beingtranscribed into a searchable word document, whichis a very long and slow process, only the yearsfrom 1857 to 1884 are complete and any informationbetween these years will appear within yourreport.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volumes. However if you so wish, youcan of course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that TheRecord Office will charge you a minimum of £27 persearch per volume; therefore your bill should youwish to have all the above mentioned Volumessearched would amount to several hundreds ofpounds, so please be aware.The Museum is situated within Warrington PoliceStation, and is normally open by appointment tothe public. However, it is currently closedpossibly to the end of August for building work toenable a new public and disabled access to bemade. If you wish to visit please contact again atthe beginning of September.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary by going to the web site, INDEX dropdown menu, HISTORY and look for "To the Best ofOur Skill and Knowledge" I feel certain that auseful picture can be obtained of life in theforce at the time, my own opinion is thatdiscipline was draconian and those who strayedoutside the rule's were fined way above what theyearned or dismissed. Also the restrictions ontheir private life, an officer was not allowed todrink on or off duty even in his own home. It allcomes down to the fact that up until the 1960'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was an exmilitary officer and they of course brought withthem the military codes of practice.I trust you will enjoy what follows and can I askyou when you get a moment would you send a quickmail so I can mark of your enquiry as complete,this is important as whilst we are not funded bythe Cheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak and I have to account forthe information I send out. If you have anycomments good or bad and you wish to make themplease do so?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me.Jim TalbotTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. PC82 William HARRISONBorn. Circa 1842 Broxton, Cheshire.Date of Entry. 18th August 1863Date of Leaving. 6th May 1869. Resigned.Comment. I refer to my earlier remark about theMarriage Register; I note from your email thatWilliam married on the 11th May 1869, hisresignation first time around was the 6th May1869, and I believe the reason for his resignationwas that he was refused permission to marry or didnot wish to seek permission to marry and thereforeresigned. In essence all officers seeking to marrymust first have obtained the Chief Constablespermission to do so, this obviously caused greatresentment and many officers refused to askpermission and were subsequently fined ordismissed which would negate the officer fromrejoining as he had been dismissed, to avoid thispunishment the officer would resign, leaving thedoor open to return to the force after he married.Re-appointed. 2nd October 1871Final Date of Leaving. 13th June 1873How Discharged. Resigned.Comment. Given the working conditions, poor payand the very strict discipline code, the turnoverof police was indeed great to say the least. I canonly presume that given this that becoming aPrison Warder would pay better and for certainthey would not be walking the beat in all types ofweather. I understand there were two prisons inManchester at the time, Bell Vue (or ManchesterBorough Goal/Manchester City Gaol, Hyde Road, WestGorton) which sounds like a good bet with Williambeing resident in Gorton in 1881 and Strangeways,Southall Street, Manchester. I understandManchester City Council Archives hold somerecords.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve Division, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. 27th February 1864Northwich; 25th December 1864 Reserve; Division HQChester; 30th December 1864 Bucklow; October 1871Nantwich; December 1872 HydeMiscellaneous Information. Religion Protestant.Height 5' 9", Age 22, Eyes Grey, Hair Brown,Complexion Pale, Build Proportional. Certificateof Service with character marked "Good" sent tohim on the 17th June 1873.The Generations NetworkPromotion. None recorded.Misconduct. 26th May 1873 improperly breaking openthe door of Samuel Harrison at Newton, Reprimandedby the Chief Constable. (There is nothing recordedin the record that Samuel Harrison is connected toWilliam).Weekly Pay. February 1866 20/-. February 186821/-. December 1868 22/- October 1871 20/-.December 1871 21/-. September 1872 23/4d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. Nonerecorded.