X Robert SMITHDear Mickey,Nice to hear from you and first off many thanksfor the pictures but sadly we are not going to beable to give a great deal of information inreturn.As you know the Cheshire Constabulary was formedin April 1857; there are many thousands ofrecords, these are held by the Cheshire RecordOffice, Chester, 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 inVolume 4. The information regarding his marriagesis retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. And with regardto his pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965. Robert didnot appear in any of these records. So the obviousnext step is one of the Constituent forces andRobert is recorded as a Sergeant with Chester CityPolice. Before giving you the very minimalinformation we have I will explain the reason forthis. Chester City Police was a totallyindependent police force between 1836 and 1949 andonly then did it become part of the CheshireConstabulary. Sadly when the officers came acrossnone of their records came across with them andthis is why we only have a small amount ofinformation. It is not for the want of seeking outpossible leads as to where these recordsdisappeared too, we have, most of the otherConstituent forces are the same but we know nowthat most of them were destroyed on amalgamation.However he is recorded as 348 Sergeant RobertSmith, born 1869/1870 Lambeth, London, he joinedon the 2nd October 1890 and retired to pension onthe 9th October 1919, total service 29 years 7days. On retirement he received a weekly pensionof £3.15s 0d. We have his death recorded as 17thNovember 1936? (The question mark means that thedate was not easily read in the original documentso if you research it please bear this in mind).And sadly this is all that is recorded.Looking at the Helmet it depicts a Queen VictorianCrown, so taking this it means that he must havebeen promoted sometime pre 1901 i.e. when Victoriadied. I have spoken to Peter Wroe about this theMuseum Curator and this was not the daily usehelmet and Peter seems to think that this wouldhave been worn with a long white smock type coatfor traffic regulation duties. The Uniform to melooks like Summer Dress.Where the reference BSI appears in our databasethis applies to a website known as the Black SheepIndex (www.blacksheepindex.co.uk) this is a sitethat carries newspaper articles concerning PoliceOfficers. On occasions the officer's full name isnot given, but we have tried to make a matchagainst what the Museum Records show. Robert hasone entry dated 1899, it showing 'assault on'.There are charges involved to obtain thisnewspaper cutting direct from the owner of thewebsite. It is emphasized that the Museum does notknow the contents of these cuttings and takes noresponsibility for them. The Museum is onlyshowing this as an aid that there is furtherinformation from another source. Should you decideto buy this please refer to this museum in yourenquiry, whilst you will not get it any cheaper itmay speed up the process.The only other information I have come across isthe 1901 Census where he is resident with his wifeElizabeth, and 4 Children also his sister Aliceand his Niece Beatrice who is one year old, at 2Nelson Street, Chester. I am sure you willappreciate searching the name Smith is pretty timeconsuming, but the possible Mother of Robert wasKathleen who was born in Suffolk circa 1842. Sheis recorded on the 1871 Census as a 29 year oldWidow, employed as a Harness Maker, with twochildren William aged 5 years and of course Robertaged 2, both born in Lambeth. The address was 55Union Street, Lambeth. I have not been able totrace them on the 1881 or 1891 Census.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 and it was absolutely no different forthe City of Borough Police officers.I truly wish I had more to give you, but at leastwe have been able to establish with doubt that hewas a Chester City Officer.Now Mickey, I would like you to consider supplyingthe details of your service for the Museumdatabase and again to explain why, it has been thepolicy of successive civilian administrationswithin Cheshire that when an officer retires orleaves for whatever reason his personal file issifted and only the minimal information retainedin order to be able to administer his pension. Sothe likes of you and me and for that matter everyofficer who served in the Cheshire Constabularypost 1913 has only the minimum amount recorded forhim. So at some point in time someone in years tocome may like to know what their Great, GreatGrandfather did in the Police and we just couldnot tell them. Any modern day officer who supplieshis service is given the assurance, which iswritten in the Museum Constitution, that this willnot be made available for 50 years. In factlooking at your entry it says 2480 Michael PhilipHunt, joined 20/05/1974 and that's the lot so howsad is that after 30 years service that's all weare worth. Incidentally there are another 19officers named Hunt the earliest being 1877, anymore relatives that you think may have who servedlets know and I will search.Can I ask you when you get a moment would you senda quick mail so I can mark of your enquiry ascompleted? If you have any further questionsplease don't hesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.