X Sgt 724 William BODENDear JohnThank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning your father William, youwould be surprised how many enquires we get frompeople who never say please or thank you, butfirst I have to point out a few things. Sadly wedo not have a photograph, that is to say we may,there are literally hundreds of photographs ofofficers, but their names were never recorded onthe reverse.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; post this date therecords are incomplete or none existent, this hasbeen brought about by successive civilian staffwithin the police disposing of the records. Yourfather's record like many hundreds of otherofficers contain the minimal amount of informationin fact your mail to me has given me more as tohis postings than what I had recorded. If you haveinformation about his service, date and place ofbirth etc, and you would like to give it to me Iwill gladly update William's record.With regard to Chief Constables Commendationsthese were always recorded within Weekly Orders,but prior to 1947 they do not exist. Here at theMuseum we have a full set between 1947 and 1965. Ihave checked between these dates and can only findone Commendation recorded for him this appears inthe Annual Supplement of Weekly Orders 1949. Thishas been re-typed verbatim and is set out below,for some reason these pages just will not scan, weare assuming it is the inferior paper on which theWeekly Orders were printed, plus the fact thatthis particular set of Orders has been printed inan Annual Book form.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.Can I ask you when you get a moment would you senda quick mail so I can mark of your enquiry ascomplete and of course if you have any informationthat you would like to part with. If you have anyfurther questions please don't hesitate to contactme. Jim Talbot. Trustee and Researcher, CheshireMuseum of Policing.CHIEF CONSTABLES COMMENDATIONMr. G.E. BANWELL, O.B.E., M.C. No 724 Constable William BODEN, NorthwichDivision.Commended for persistency in an enquiry which ledto the arrest of G.R at Northwich, on the 11thFebruary 1949, for House Breaking and Larceny.It appears that at 5.45pm on Friday 11th February1949, in consequence of information receivedregarding a case of house-breaking at 37 CarltonRoad, Northwich, Constable Boden commencedenquiries. He ascertained that about 2.20pm on the11th February, Mr. Hughes of 37, Carlton Road, hadretired to bed for a rest and shortly afterwardshis housekeeper left the house to go shopping.Before leaving, she secured the front door andleft by the back way, closing the door behind her.About 3.30pm that day, Mr. Hughes heard feebleknocking on the back door and after an interval itwas repeated and then heard the back door beingopened. He got dressed and as he got to the top ofthe stairs he saw G.R., whom he did not knowcoming out of the living room. G.R., saw Hughesand he ran off through the back doorway. Mr.Hughes gave chase but the man mounted a cycleoutside the house and rode off. On returning tothe house Mr. Hughes found that a half pound boxof chocolates was missing from his overcoat. Thematter was reported to the police at 5.10pm.Constable Boden made a thorough house to houseenquiry in the vicinity of the crime, having beengiven a description of the thief. He madeenquiries of person's using Carlton Road and at7.15pm that night spoke to Mr. Batty, a Grocer ofNorthwich. He told Mr. Batty the nature of hisenquiry and Mr. Batty informed him that he hadspoken to a youth answering that description inCarlton Road that afternoon. Mr. Batty said he didnot know the youth's name but he thought he wasemployed by a Butcher in Rudheath. Constable Bodenthen contacted his Section Sgt with a result thatthe identity of the thief was established and at9.35pm the same night he arrested G.R. and chargedhim with house-breaking and larceny. Later it wasreported that a parcel of meat had been stolenfrom the rear of 17, Carlton Road, Northwich andthat the Northwich Cricket Pavilion had beenbroken into but nothing had been stolen. Whenquestioned in connection with the latter offences,G.R. admitted being responsible.On the 18th February 1949, G.R. appeared beforeNorthwich Magistrates Court charged withhouse-breaking and the pavilion breaking and wascommitted to trial at Knutsford Quarter Sessionson the 4th April 1949. At Knutsford QuarterSessions, 4th April 1949 G.R. was bound over inthe sum of £5 for two years on probation.This is good police work. Due to the persistencyof this Constable in following up enquiries he wasable to arrest the thief within 5 hours of thecrime being reported.