X William WALLACE.Dear Lindsey,Thank 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, but if you do we would appreciate ascanned copy for our records. Further William wasin fact a member of the Chester City Police Force,which was an independent Force formed in 1836 andit remained this way until it was amalgamated intoCheshire Constabulary in 1949. Sadly Chester CityPolice archives are few and far between, so weonly hold a little information on William.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. Chester City Police Officer EnrolmentRecords are held under Reference CJP20/7/1.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volume. However if you so wish, you canof course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that whilstthis Museum works on a donation basis, the ChesterRecord Office however, will charge you a minimumof £27 per search so please be aware.I have also added from the History of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, theinformation concerning Chester City, however theentire history is worth reading as I feel certainthat a useful picture can be obtained of life inthe force at the time, my own opinion is thatdiscipline was severe and those who strayedoutside the rules 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. Thiswas the case in all Cheshire forces.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, however can I ask you notto contact again before the 8th of January as Iwill, in about an hour, be on my way to Germanyfor New Year. Best wishes to you and may I alsotake the opportunity to wish you a very Happy NewYear. Jim Talbot. Trustee and Researcher, CheshireMuseum of Policing.Collar Number/Rank. Sgt 196 William Wallace.Born. 1836 place not recorded but presumedIreland.Date of Entry. 09 June 1865Date of Leaving. 12 February 1881Final Date of Leaving. 12 February 1881How Discharged. Death in service.Initial Posting. Chester City Police.Miscellaneous Information. Detective Sgt on death.Prior undated service of 7 years with DublinMetropolitan Police Force. (This forming thepresumption that he was born in Ireland). Iunderstand that Dublin Metropolitan Police Recordsdo exist, so there may be further informationthere.As appoint of interest I also have a PC SamuelJohn Wallace, Born 1861 Dublin, who served in theCheshire Constabulary. Do you know if William hada son named Samuel John? If so I do have a morecomplete record on him. I am so sorry that we donot hold more information. The Borough Forces Chester City Congleton Macclesfield Stalybridge HydePREVIOUS to the Police Act, 1946, Cheshirecontained eight independent Borough Police Forces.The Act reduced the number to three. The fiveextinguished forces were Chester City (1949),Congleton, Hyde, Macclesfield and Stalybridge.Each of these forces had a police history of somelocal interest. That concerning Macclesfield wasput on record in 1947 by the last of its ChiefConstables - Mr. W. G. Symmons - now ChiefConstable of St. Helens. The others, in detail,remain to be written. What follows here must, ofnecessity, be brief.Each of the forces, except that of Hyde, may besaid to have begun as such in the year 1836 whenpolice administration, was to some extent, tidiedup by the Municipal Corporations Act of the yearbefore which, amongst other things, created WatchCommittees having the duty of employing asufficient number of constables and administeringthe force.The 1835 Act made no provision for an Exchequergrant and, of course, no system of inspection withits concomitant of standardized administration andprocedure which came only in 1856. It is in thislight, therefore, that the pre-1856 days of theBorough Forces should be looked at.CHESTER CITYAt the beginning of the nineteenth century,Chester had a body of Commissioners to administerthe very elementary needs of local government.This body, under an Act of 1762 had power, amongstother things, to employ and pay watchmen. Some fewconstables existed elected by parishes or wardsand appointed formally by the City Court ofQuarter Sessions.A register of watchmen of I 8o6 shows thateighteen men were employed on this duty. One wasover sixty-nine years of age and eleven of themare shown as being "old soldiers". In 1815 it isrecorded that during the months October to Marchthe Watch was increased by ten, giving a total oftwenty-eight. At the same time wages were reducedfrom twelve shillings to ten shillings per week.The Commissioners met at The Exchange. This was apublic building occupying the site on which thepresent Town Hall was built in 1862. The onlypolice station house in the City was in thisbuilding. On the erection of the present Town Halla police station was included and it has been thecity police headquarters until today.In addition to the Watch, a certain number ofconstables were serving; quite how many is by nomeans clear. A report of a special committee ofthe Council dated 18 39 says: "It appears to theCommittee that previous to January, 1836, theConstabulary and Police Force of the Cityconsisted of- Mr. Hill, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Haswell,The Mayor's Porter, The Beadle, Thomas Worrall.Three row constables from six to nine o'clock atnight, and about fifty ward constables. That the`Police Force' consisted of thirty-two watchmen,twenty-one firemen, viz., one superintendent, fourcaptains and sixteen firemen. That the presentestablishment consists of Mr. Hill, Mr. Haswell,The Mayor's Porter, Thomas Worrall and twenty-sixconstables. That Mr. Hill and Mr. Haswell areprepared by the next meeting with informationrelative to the salaries and emoluments asconnected with their respective offices."From this rather confused picture it is possibleto guess that probably Messrs. Hill, Dawson andHaswell, and maybe Thomas Worrall, were full-timepolicemen in the period immediately preceding1836. It seemed that Haswell had a specialresponsibility as "superintendent of the Watch",and Hill as "superintendent of Police", for eachwas respectively so described in 1839. The threerow constables were probably part-time and thefifty ward constable's probably annual vestry orparish constables.Before 1835 the only disciplinary authority restedwith the Magistrates for in 1829 the ChesterCourant reported: "Four parish constables werebrought up on a summons for neglect of duty on theSabbath. They were all discharged on excuse andpromise of being punctual in future. One had apain in his knee; another didn't know; a third wasaway from home; and the fourth blamed his wife."In 1844 a Watch Committee report stated that theforce consisted of one superintendent, twosergeants and sixteen constables, and that theywere each furnished with a staff, cutlass andhandcuffs. They were issued with a greatcoat, acoat with embroidery to collar, trousers, hat,stock, badge, cape, boots and gloves, the issuebeing a greatcoat every two years, and otherarticles yearly. The "hats" were undoubtedly ofthe common style of top-hats of the periodvarnished or otherwise weather-proofed, for acorrespondent to a local newspaper spoke of "theglazed-hatted policemen" of the City.The wages were recorded as being: superintendent £120 per annum; sergeants £1 per week andconstables fourteen shillings per week.In the same year it was ordered that Mr. Hill "beauthorized to produce a book to be called ThePrisoner's Property Book for use at the policestation."That the policemen's lot was not withoutoccupational hazards is to be seen in the frequentreferences to damage to uniforms or personalinjury, as for example in May, 1844, when theWatch Committee ordered a new pair of trousers forAbraham Price and a new shirt for Henry Johnson,"their own having been destroyed in the executionof their duty in apprehending Robert Edwards forbreach of the peace," and that the Council berecommended to allow Peter Gillan ten days wages,he having been disabled in consequence of injuriesreceived in an affray in Steven Street.In addition to policing the city it seems theWatch Committee had a responsibility for managingthe local prison, for in 1839 it was reported that"this establishment was ill-managed, and owing tothe illness of the Governor the chairman hadappointed Constable Capper to assist him." It wasfurther reported by the chairman that, but for theexertions of Holmes (a policeman in gaol for threemonths for assault), a prisoner named Jackson,under sentence of transportation, would certainlyhave escaped.Holmes had been sentenced a few weeks earlier forwhat was described by the Recorder "as a mostbrutal assault." The City prison went out of usein 1872.In September of the same year (1844) it isrecorded that the cells at the police station wereto be heated with hot water.In 1850 Mr. Hill was authorized to procure a bedfor the use of the constable on night duty at thepolice office with two brown Holland covers forthe same.Chester being a garrison town and a cross-road forEnglish, Welsh and Irish traffic, was always abusy place for the police. The earlieststatistical information available (1865) showsthat of 2,081 persons proceeded against in theCourts, 927 were unable to read or write. As tonationality 1,401 were English, 606 Irish,fifty-five Welsh, sixteen Scots and foreignersthree. The Labour and Political troubles whichcontinued for so long to affect the peace of EastCheshire seemed not to have affected Chester,except occasionally when, as in 1839, to meetthreats of rescue attempts of some Chartists fortrial at the Assizes some 300 to 400 localinhabitants were enrolled as Special Constablesand armed with cutlasses supplied from governmentstores.John Hill served as Head of the City Force until1864. He was the first of the only four ChiefConstables the City ever had in its 113 yearslifetime as an independent force (1836-1949). Hecommenced service as Superintendent of the Watchin 1824. He gave evidence before the RoyalCommission (1836-9) on the state of thelawlessness in the country surrounding Chester,and in particular in the Hundred of Broxton. Hewas then described as High Constable of Chester.The second Chief Constable was George Lee Fenwiek,who commanded the City Force for a period ofthirty-four years (1864-98). Fenwick was a welleducated man. He is believed to have been aschoolmaster for a time before taking up policeservice. His annual reports and comments were mostcomplete and illuminating. In 1897 he produced agraph showing the movement of annual proceedingsfor drunkenness offences covering the thirty-fiveyears up to 1897. This shows nearly l00 cases in1865 and a general gradual decline to about 250 inthe last year recorded in this fashion.His comments on the life of the under-privilegedno doubt provided much food for thought, as: "WhenI inform you (the Watch Committee) that in oneentry containing thirty-eight dwellings I latelyfound upwards of 230 persons, that the width ofthe entry is only four yards, and that thesanitary arrangements are not a model ofcompleteness, I think you will be of the opinionthat if working men or even women who inhabit sucha place occasionally seek a change elsewhere thatthere is not much cause for astonishment. "Probably the outstanding event of Mr. Fenwick'stenure of office was the "Fenian Plot" of 1867,already referred to. This, as we know, came tonothing.Mr. Fenwick retired in 1898 when he was succeededby Mr. John H. Laybourne, who came from Liverpoolwhere he had been a chief inspector. By this timethe strength of the force was fifty, made up ofthe Chief Constable, five inspectors, threesergeants and forty-one constables.Mr. Laybourne retired in 1920 after twenty-twoyears as Chief Constable. He later became a memberof the City Council and was Mayor 1934-5. He laterwent to reside in Canada.Thomas C. Griffiths, the fourth and last ChiefConstable of the City, began his police service inSt. Helens, in 1903. He later transferred to thePolice Force of Southend-on-Sea from which placehe came to Chester. He retired on the amalgamationof the County and City Forces in 1949 with a totalpolice service of forty-six years, for twenty-nineof which he was Chief Constable of Chester,commanding a force which had grown to anestablishment of seventy.Throughout the whole of its history the CityPolice Force had a busy time. Perhaps the busiestweek of the year was race-week. Year after year asuccession of police officers, imported from asfar afield as Doncaster and Birmingham, followedeach other into the witness box at the Citymagistrates' court to speak of the misdeeds of thepickpocket, the card sharper and the welsher. Inone race-week before the turn of the century itwas recorded that seventy-seven race-meeting"followers" appeared before the justices.Reference has already been made to the behaviourof the denizens of the alleys, entries and slumsof Chester. Whilst public personal behaviour hascontinually improved one police problem stillremains; this concerns the question of traffic. Itmust always have been a problem even in thepre-railway times when all road traffic carryingpassengers or goods to or from Ireland viaHolyhead passed through Chester using the onlyexisting bridge - Handbridge - to cross the river.The problem could hardly have been eased by thecomparatively short life of the local tram-carsystem which operated from the late nineteenthcentury until the 1920s.The visit of Barnum and Bailey's Circus to theRoodee in October, 1898, was the cause of asuspension of tram traffic and the employment ofthe whole force for some hours to keep the wayclear for the traditional procession through theprincipal streets.The personal behaviour and habits of the rank andfile of the force, it seems, was no better and noworse than were to be found generally amongsttheir contemporaries in other forces. However, thelatitude given to some offenders is ratherdifficult to understand. During the middle thirdperiod of the nineteenth century it is noted thatsome constables would be "allowed" up to as manyas twenty convictions for drunkenness on dutybefore the Watch Committee finally decided theywere "not likely to make efficient constables" anddischarged them from the force.Of course the force had its element of good men,hard-working and reliable, without whom it couldnever have earned (in time) and held the good willof the public. Whilst a drunken policeman mightwell set back public trust to a considerabledegree; the work of the good men always more thanoffset the losses.Occasionally the prestige of the force wouldacquire an extra bonus of public favour as in1932, when Sergeant Capper and Constable (laterInspector) Alfred Cleaver rescued persons from ablazing house in Trinity Street. Both officerswere later awarded the medal of the Royal HumaneSociety and Cleaver, for additional risk, receivedthe King's Police Medal for Gallantry and theBronze Medal of the Society for the Protection ofLife from Fire.Before terminating this short and somewhatinadequate sketch of the Chester City Police,mention should be made of a gentleman who,although not of the force, was intimatelyconnected with it for many years. This was Dr.George Harrison who was doctor to the City Forceand examiner of recruits to the Cheshire police.Such was the esteem in which he was held that in1895 he was presented with a large photograph ofthe force in which he occupied the place ofhonour. In 1900, he entertained the whole force todinner at the Town Hall in celebration of twentyyears service as Police Surgeon.The Curator, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1LQ