X PatronGerald Cavendish GrosvenorDuke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DLOur ref: JT43/2012Alfred BRANDDear Andrew,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Alfred you may be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you, but first I have to point outa few things. Sadly we do not have a photograph,that is to say we may, there are literallyhundreds of photographs of officers, but theirnames were never recorded on the reverse of thephotograph so from the Museums perspective theyremain unidentifiable. If you have a photographand you would like to share it a scanned copywould be wonderful or for that matter any otherinformation you may have that could be added tohis file.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester.As a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher 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 3. Marriage and Pension records areavailable however in this case Alfred was notmarried during his service with Cheshire, nor didhe serve to be discharged on pension.Further, there are 33 Volumes each containingapproximately 400 pages of General Orders, theseare basically the everyday events of the CheshireConstabulary and date from April 1857 to 1946,they are also normally held at the Record Officein Chester under reference CJP4, however they arepresently held by the Museum. Each Volume ishandwritten and although they can be scanned theycannot be searched to extract the information asthe character recognition software just does notrecognise handwriting. They are therefore beingtranscribed into a searchable word document, whichis a very long and slow process, only the yearsfrom 1857 to 1884 are complete, however I havechecked through from Alfred's joining date untilhis retirement and any information between theseyears will appear within your report.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 bill should youwish to have all the above mentioned Volumessearched would amount to several hundreds ofpounds, so please be aware. Normally the Museummakes a charge for reports however as you are aserving officer the research is free.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary by going to the web site, INDEX dropdown menu, HISTORY and look for "To the Best ofOur Skill and Knowledge" I feel certain that auseful picture can be obtained of life in theforce at the time, my own opinion is thatdiscipline was draconian 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. It allcomes down to the fact that up until the 1960'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was anex-military officer and they of course broughtwith 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 complete,this is important as whilst we are not funded bythe Cheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak and I have to account forthe information I send out. If you have anycomments good or bad and you wish to make themplease do so?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me.Jim TalbotTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. PC 456 Alfred BRANDBorn. Very few of the early records giveinformation about the officers date and place ofbirth and when not given we estimate it from thecensus returns. In Alfred's case the 1881 Censusshows born 1860, Tichborne, Hampshire, 1891 Censusshows he was born in 1864 in Winchester and the1901 Census shows he was born in 1865 again inTichborne. The only date I can come up with fromthe official Birth Registers is him being born inthe January to Mar quarter of 1859 at Arlesford,Hampshire.Date of Entry. 17th January 1881Date of Leaving. 13th July 1885Re-appointed. Not applicable.Final Date of Leaving. 13th July 1885How Discharged. Dismissed.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve Division, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. May 1881 Nantwich.January 1884 Altrincham.Miscellaneous Information. 1881 Census shows himas a lodger and a serving officer resident at thepolice station Hamilton Street, Hoole. I havespoken with the retired officer who researches oldpolice stations and there is some confusion,whilst we know that Hoole Lodge (Oakland's Hotel)was at some point in time used as a police stationthis was later than 1886. Alfred was at HamiltonStreet, Police Station, but the research to datehas failed to confirm that there was indeed astation in Hamilton Street. 1891 census residentas a Lodger with a family named Stevenson atDuckmanton, Sutton Cum Duckmanton, Derbyshire. The1901 Census shows subject as resident with hissister Emily Brand at 7 Green Lane, Hollingworth(Cheshire) Mottram, Registration District ofAshton Under Lyne, in the County of Lancashire.This Museum also has access to the BritishNewspaper Archives; these have been researched forthe whole of Cheshire for the period of time atwhich Alfred served sadly nothing came to light.Previous Occupation Gamekeeper. ReligionProtestant, Height 5' 9", Age 21, (this age isofficially written in the records this would takehim back to being born circa 1859/1860) EyesBrown, Hair Dark Brown, Complexion Fresh, BuildProportional.Age on retirement. No applicable.Total service. 4 years 5 months and, 25 days.Died. Unknown.The Generations NetworkPromotion. None.Misconduct. 18th February 1883 Being under theinfluence of drink at 10.50pm also absent from hisConference Point at 1am, Fined 10/-.19th May 1883 Drunk on duty at 3.30am, Fined 5/-and removed to another station at his own expense.9th June 1883 absent from duty from 6am to 6.30am,Admonished.17th December 1883 being in the Railway Inn, Creweat midnight, Reduced to 23/11d .7th January 1884 under the influence of drink whenon duty at 11.50pm, Fined 20/- and transferred athis own expense to Altrincham Division.11th July 1885 Drunk and unfit for duty atAltrincham, Dismissed from the 13th July 1885, bythe chief ConstableWeekly Pay. 17th January 1881 23/11d, August 188124/6d, 22nd July 1882 25/8d, 17th December 1883reduced to 23/11d per week. 26th March 1885 24/6d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. Nonerecorded.Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington. WA1 1LQTel : 01606 36 3848/5803www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk/