X William Christian LAWSONDear LindaThank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning William you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you, but first I have topoint out a few things. Sadly we do not have aphotograph, that is to say we may, there areliterally hundreds of photographs of officers, buttheir names were never recorded on the reverse ofthe photograph.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Ias a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher 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 inVolume 4. The information regarding his marriagesis retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. And with regardto his pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965.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 or indeed visitthe Records Office yourself. 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 total bill wouldbe £81, so please be aware. The Museum charges,for searching the three volumes are on a reducingscale i.e. dependant on the information recorded,the maximum amount payable is £10, whichrepresents good value. Your remittance is £10 andas we are working on a trust basis please forwardpayment via cheque made payable to the 'Museum ofPolicing in Cheshire' and send it to The Curator,Mr. Peter Wroe, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire. WA1. 1LQ. Incidentally theMuseum which is situated in Warrington PoliceStation is open to the public via appointment onMondays and Fridays, if you wish to visit a quickemail with when you would like to visit we willtry to accommodate you.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, I feelcertain that a useful picture can be obtained oflife in the force at the time, my own opinion isthat discipline was draconian and those whostrayed outside the rule's were fined way abovewhat they earned or dismissed. Also therestrictions on their private life, an officer wasnot allowed to drink on or off duty even in hisown home. It all comes down to the fact that upuntil the 1960's every Chief Constable of Cheshirewas an ex military officer and they of coursebrought with them 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 completed.If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me. Best wishes Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. Sergeant 47 WilliamChristian LAWSONBorn. 1870 Loughall, Tullamore, Armagh, Ireland.Date of Entry. 17th February 1894Date of Leaving. 30th April 1920Final Date of Leaving. 30th April 1920How Discharged. To Pension.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. 17th March 1894 Crewe,27th November 1894 Nantwich, 14th December 1895Macclesfield, 15th January 1898 Northenden, 26thApril 1903 Rode Heath, 18th November 1903Middlewich, 1st August 1905 Aston, 1st August 1907Gawsworth, 8th November 1909 Bollington, 1stNovember 1913 Sandbach.Miscellaneous Information. Previous OccupationGrocer. Religion Protestant, Irish, Height 5' 10",Age 24, Eyes Blue, Hair Dark Brown, ComplexionFresh, Build Proportional. Certificate of Servicewith Character marked as "Exemplary" sent to him29th April 1920.1891 Census Address 2 Lead Works Lane, Chester.Age on retirement 50 years 3 months,Total service 26 years 68 days,Died 27th March 1946.Promotion/Misconduct. No Misconduct reportsrecorded. (I make the remark here that this is anexception to the rule, there are not many officersfor this period of time that have a clean record)Weekly Pay/Promotion. 17th February 1894 25/1d,1st March 1895 26/3d, 1st March 1896 26/10d, 1stMarch 1897 28/-, 1st March 1899 29/2d, 1st March1901 30/4d, 1st August 1905 Promoted Acting Sgt,1st March 1906 31/6d, 1st August 1907 Promoted Sgt33/3d, 1st August 1909 34/5d, 1st August 191136/2d, 1st April 1912 37/11d, 1st November 191239/11d, 1st August 1913 40/3d, 1st July 191544/4d, 1st August 1915 45/6d, 1st August 191746/8d, 30th September 1918 55/5d, 10th November1918 63/2d, 1st April 1919 112/6d.Discharged on a pension of £195.10s.8d per annum.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. 10thNovember 1902 Long Service and Good Conduct, MeritBadge and 2d per day additional pay.Marriage RecordOfficer. William LAWSONOccupation. GrocerAge. 23 yearsCondition. BachelorPlace of residence at Marriage. 43 Egerton Street,Chester.Date of Marriage. 4th June 1893Place Married. St. Johns Baptist Church, Chester.Fathers Name. William J. LawsonFathers Occupation. Farmer.Spouse. Emma DODDOccupation. None shown.Age. 23 years.Condition. SpinsterPlace of residence. 3 Earls Villas, Chester.Fathers Name. John DoddFathers Occupation. Well Sinker, Chester.