X John Reginald LOCKLEYDear Oliver,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning John you would be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you, but first I have to point outa few 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 thephotographs. From your original enquiry I notedyour comment that John was a member of the ChesterPolice. To clear up any ambiguity Chester had itsown Police Force between 1836 and 1949, this wasknown as Chester City Police, and John althoughstationed at Hoole was a member of the CheshireConstabulary.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; post this datesuccessive civilian administrations within theCheshire Constabulary have, when the officerresigned or retired weeded his personal file andonly retained enough relevant information toadminister his pension, hence the reason why verylittle information on his actual police service isrecorded, in fact all that remains of John'srecord, now that he is deceased is a small indexcard and this is retained by CheshireConstabulary. The information regarding hismarriages is retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. Andwith regard to his pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965.Further there is one set of records which consistsof the Force General Orders these basically recordthe daily running of the Force between 1857 and1966 and consist of 45 volumes. These arecurrently retained by the Museum, they are handwritten and at present being transcribed to enablethem to become searchable documents. Only theyears 1857-1881 have been transcribed and this hastaken over 12 months to complete, if anyinformation regarding Johns service is within theVolumes that cover his period of service it wouldtake many months to research. Unfortunately theOrders have a 50 year 'None Public Disclosure' inother words they would not be accessible to searchby anyone other than the Museum Staff for John'sservice until 2014.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective places. However if you so wish, you canof course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist (i.e. theMarriage and Pension Registers only). But it wouldbe remiss 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 £54, so please be aware, but of course beingresident in Chester it would be very easy for youto visit the Record Office. The Museum charges,for searching are on a reducing scale i.e.dependant on the information recorded, the maximumamount payable is £10, which represents goodvalue. Your remittance is £5 and as we are workingon a trust basis please forward payment by chequemade payable to the "Museum of Policing inCheshire" and forward it to The Curator, Mr. PeterWroe, Museum of Policing in Cheshire, WarringtonPolice Station, Arpley Street, Warrington,Cheshire. WA1. 1LQ.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site underthe drop down menu marked 'History' I feel certainthat a useful picture can be obtained of life inthe force 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.Can I ask you when you get a moment would you senda quick mail so I can mark of your enquiry ascomplete? If you have any further questions pleasedon't hesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot.Volunteer Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museumof Policing.Collar Number/Rank. Sergeant 438 John ReginaldLOCKLEYBorn. 11th November 1911Date of Entry. 27th September 1933Date of Leaving. 23rd June 1964Final Date of Leaving. 23rd June 1964How Discharged. To pensionInitial Posting. HQ Reserve Chester.Other Postings. Hoole, Chester. Cheadle.Miscellaneous Information. Age on retirement 52years. Total service 30 years 271 days. DiedCheshire May 1990, aged 78 yearsPromotion/Misconduct. Not recorded.Pay. Annual pay on retirement £1138. 1s. 1d.Annual pension £738. 4s. 4d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. Police LongService and Good Conduct Medal awarded 1956.1st Marriage RecordOfficer. John Reginald LOCKLEYOccupation. Police Officer.Age. 24 yearsCondition. BachelorPlace of residence at Marriage. 44 Witham Street,Hoole, Chester.Date of Marriage. 14th April 1937Place Married. St. Paul's Church, Chester.Fathers Name. William LOCKLEYFathers Occupation. Ticket Collector, Chester.Spouse. Vera Phyllis ASCOUGHOccupation. None recorded.Age. 24 years.Condition. SpinsterPlace of residence.43 Heath Lane, Chester.Fathers Name. John AscoughFathers Occupation. Whitesmith, Chester.2nd Marriage RecordOfficer. John Reginald LOCKLEYOccupation. Police Officer.Age. 35 years.Condition. WidowerPlace of residence at Marriage. 6 ThornfieldGrove, Cheadle Hulme.Date of Marriage. 18th September 1947Place Married. Parish Church Cheadle.Fathers Name. William LOCKLEY (Deceased)Fathers Occupation.Spouse. Kathleen Pathania ROBERTSOccupation. Not recorded.Age. 31 yearsCondition. SpinsterPlace of residence.6 Thornfield Grove, CheadleHulme.Fathers Name. George Butler RobertsFathers Occupation. Railway Guard, Cheshire.