X George PARKERDear IanThank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning George 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.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 inVolumes 1 and 2. The information regarding anofficer's marriage is retained in CJP24/21847-1966, however for some reason it is not,this is unusual as it was an offence under thethen Regulations not to declare your marriagewhich normally resulted in being fined ordismissed by the then Chief Constable.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 total bill wouldbe £54, so please be aware.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. Jim Talbot. Trustee andResearcher, Cheshire Museum of Policing.Collar Number/Rank. PC158 George PARKERBorn. 1834 Hartford, Cheshire.Date of Entry. 29th May 1858Date of Leaving. 25th February 1866Re-appointed. 9th June 1866.Final Date of Leaving. 25th January 1870How Discharged. Resigned.Initial Posting. HQ Chester, Reserve Division.Other Postings and Dates. Posted 6th June 1858Hyde; 16th June 1860 Wirral. June 1866 HQ Reserve,August 1866 Wirral. December 1869 Altrincham.Miscellaneous Information. Prior service of 2years 9 month with Manchester Borough Police.Greater Manchester Police also have their ownPolice Museum, they may hold his initial servicerecord, and they are contactable via the internet.Religion Protestant, Height 6' 0", Age 24, EyesBrown Hair Brown, Complexion Pale, Build Thin.Testimonials sent to him 6th January 1871.Promotion/Misconduct. November 1867 Unfit for dutyin consequence of domestic quarrels, Reprimanded.July 1868 negligently allowing a Prisoner toescape, Ordered to pay expenses of recapture byChief Constable. May 1869 Neglect of duty andabsent without leave, Fined 10/- and reprimanded.20th August 1869 Drunk on duty at 12 pmWeekly Pay. 26th March 1860 from 19/- to 20/-.13th April 1861 from 20/- to 21/-. (Onreappointment) June 1867 20/-. 05/1868 21/-. Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. April 1860apprehension of a Deserter, 10/- reward from theWar Office. April 1867 apprehension of a man forseveral robberies at night, 5/- reward from theChief Constable.Where the reference BSI appears in the Museumdatabase this applies to a website known as theBlack Sheep Index (www.blacksheepindex.co.uk) thisis a site that carries newspaper articlesconcerning Police Officers. On occasions theofficer's full name is not given, but we havetried to make a match against what the MuseumRecords show. George is shown in one such articledated 1866 when he is called to give evidence at aShipwreck Enquiry in Wallasey. There are chargesinvolved to obtain these newspaper cuttings directfrom the owner of the website. It is emphasizedthat the Museum does not know the contents ofthese cuttings and takes no responsibility forthem. The Museum is only showing this as an aidthat there is further information from anothersource. If you decide that you may want thisinformation please mention when requesting thatyou have received the information from thisMuseum, whilst you will not get it any cheaper itmay just speed up the process.