X Martin BRENNANDear Kris (if I may be so bold)Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Martin 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 ofthe photographs.From the very outset it is important that you aremade aware that Martin served in two policeforces, where necessary I will always say the nameof the force which I am referring to. It isperhaps easier to explain that CheshireConstabulary was formed in April 1857, forpolicing purposes it covered the entire County ofCheshire, which then included all the Wirral(Birkenhead, Seacombe etc). However and this iswhere it gets a little confusing at the same timeas Cheshire Constabulary was running there were anumber of other Police Forces in the County,either running or being set up over the following50 years or so, these were known as Borough PoliceForces, with the exception of Chester which was aCity Force. So Martin in fact started his timewith the Cheshire Constabulary in 1907 butfinished his time with Wallasey Borough Police, hestarting with the Wallasey Borough Police on itsformation on the 1st April 1913. Wallasey BoroughPolice remained a totally independent Police Forcefrom that date until 1967 and then was amalgamatedwith the Cheshire Constabulary. It only remainedpart of the Cheshire Constabulary until 1974, thenunder the local Government reorganisation ofboundaries it became part of the MerseysidePolice. Sadly when Wallasey Borough Police becamepart of Cheshire Constabulary in 1967, very few ofits records came with them and we presume thatmany were destroyed on the authority of the SeniorOfficers of Wallasey Borough because they wereagainst the amalgamations. What few records thereare appertaining to Wallasey Borough Police areheld at the Public Record Office Chester underCJP20/7/1-3, the Museum having already searchedthese records I do not think any further usefulinformation will be obtained, you will be betteroff buying a book which I will write about alittle later.As I said the Cheshire Constabulary was formed inApril 1857; there are many thousands of records,these are held by the Cheshire Record Office,Chester. I as a retired Police officer andvoluntary Police Museum Researcher am slowlyextracting these records. Cheshire Police OfficerEnrolment Records are held under Reference CJP7Volumes 1-5. These five volumes are very large andin poor condition, run from 1857- 22 March 1913;the information which you seek would therefore berecorded in Volume 5. The information regarding anofficer's Marriage is retained in CJP24/21847-1966 Martin does not appear in this. Ipresume he would have married post 1913 whilstserving with Wallasey Borough Police, who did nothave a Married Officer's Book.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. They will also not doany additional research as I have done in order tohelp you a little further. The Museum charges, forsearching are on a reducing scale i.e. dependanton the information recorded, the maximum amountpayable is £10, which represents good value. Yourremittance is £8 and as we are working on a trustbasis please forward payment via cheque madepayable to 'The Museum of Policing in Cheshire'and send it to The Curator, Mr. Peter Wroe, Museumof Policing in Cheshire, Warrington PoliceStation, 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, 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.It was not very much different within the BoroughPolice Forces. In fact the only difference betweena County Police Officer and a Borough PoliceOfficer is that the County Police had powers ofarrest throughout England and Wales and theBorough Police only had powers of arrest withinthe boundaries of their BoroughCHESHIRE CONSTABULARY INFORMATION ONLYCollar Number/Rank. PC329 Martin BRENNANBorn. Circa 1887, Croghan, Roscommon, Ireland(please be mindful that the spelling may not becorrect when researching this location)Date of Entry. 10th August 1907Date of Leaving. 31st March 1913Final Date of Leaving. 31st March 1913,How Discharged. To take up appointment onformation of Wallasey Borough Police.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. 14th September 1907Sale. (Broxton Division). 26th January 1913Liscard (Wirral Division)Miscellaneous Information. Previous OccupationLabourer. Religion Roman Catholic, Height 5' 10",Age 20, Eyes Brown, Hair Brown, Complexion Fresh,Build Proportional. Distinguishing Marks Nil.Promotion/Misconduct. No promotions or Misconductreports recorded.Weekly Pay. 10th August 1907 25/1d, 1st September1908 26/3d, 10th August 1909 26/10d, 10th August1910 28/-, 1st April 1912 30/4d, 10th August 191231/6d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. No awardsrecorded.Further Research.Where the reference BSI appears on the CheshireConstabulary Museum Database this applies to awebsite known as the Black Sheep Index(www.blacksheepindex.co.uk) this is a site thatcarries 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. It showsthat there are two entries for Martin whilstserving with Wallasey Borough Police the first in1914 shows a Life Saving Swimming Team Photographand the other 1915 which is a further photographof him as a Military Foot Policeman (please seebelow). There are charges involved to obtain thesenewspaper cuttings/photographs direct from theowner of the website. It is emphasized that theMuseum does not known the contents of thesecuttings and takes no responsibility for them. TheMuseum is only showing this as an aid that thereis further information from another source.Having found the information from the Black SheepIndex that he was a member of the Military FootPolice I quickly checked to establish if he infact served overseas during World War 1, he didand he is recorded as P1721 L/Cpl Martin Brennan,Military Foot Police, he served in France and wasawarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal andVictory Medal.Lastly the Book I mentioned, well Books really.They are titled Helmets, Handcuffs and Horses. TheStory of The Wallasey Police and Fire Brigade,Part One deals with the Police, Part Two dealswith the Fire Brigade, however for someinexplicable reason many of the Police Officersnames appear at the rear of the Fire Brigade Book.The Books were written by Noel E. Smith, WallaseyPolice has the ISBN 0-9517762-3-1, The FireBrigade ISBN 0-9517762-4-X, the books should befairly easy to get hold off I think they may beabout £7 each. The Police book is a mind ofinformation and deals with the force from itsinception, many good quality black and whitephotographs. Having had a quick scan of it I knowit shows in 1913 on page 17 Martin as PC 329 M.Brenman (which of course is a spelling mistake, weknow it means PC Brennan because it gives hiscollar number as it was when he was still a memberof Cheshire. On page 27 it refers to a list ofofficers serving in 1928, it shows PC6 MartinBrenan (spelling with one 'n') as a member of theCriminal Investigation Department (CID). It couldbe that his name is further mentioned in the book,but I really will have to leave that with you toresearch. The year 1928 also gives you a clue asto when he may have completed his service withWallasey Borough Police. In those days it wasnormal for an officer to retire after 25 yearsservice, but in the main only senior officers wentpast 25 and 30 years, so my guess would be thatMartin probably retired from Wallasey BoroughPolice as a Detective around 1932.I trust I have been able to assist you with someof your enquiry can I ask you when you get amoment would you send a quick mail so I can markof your enquiry as complete. If you have anycomments good or bad we would like to hear them.We are in no way financed by the Cheshire Policealthough the Museum is housed in a working policestation but they remain our masters so to speakand we have to show our worth or lack of it.If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me. Best wishes Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.