X PatronGerald Cavendish GrosvenorDuke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DLOur ref: JT61/2012John McMICHAELDear Joy,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning John 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 2. The information regarding his marriageis retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. And with regardto his pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965.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 John's joining date until hisretirement and any information between these yearswill 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 you canverify the records or of course have the recordsconfirmed by the Chester Records Office Archivist.But it would be remiss of me if I did not pointout that The Record Office will charge you aminimum of £27 per search per volume; thereforeyour bill should you wish to have all the abovementioned Volumes searched would amount to severalhundreds of pounds, so please be aware. The costof your report is £10, and given the aboveinformation I feel certain that you will agreethat this represents value for money.The Museum is within the confines of WarringtonPolice Station which is an operational stationtherefore visits to the Museum are by appointmentonly, normally on Mondays and Fridays. If youwould like to visit please forward a quick mail acouple of weeks before and I feel certain theCurator Mr. Peter Wroe and Staff will doeverything possible to accommodate you.Payment can be made by going to the Museum websitewww.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk within thedrop down 'Index' is the section marked 'FamilyResearch' there it will be seen 'Pay-Pal orDebit/Credit Card' click on this and follow theinstructions, when payment is received by theMuseum Pay-Pal will automatically let the Museumknow. If you prefer to pay by cheque please makeit payable to the 'Museum of Policing in Cheshire'and send it to the Curator, Mr. Peter Wroe, Museumof Policing, County Police Office, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire CW1 1LQ, if you pay in thismanner will you kindly let me know.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.This Museum also has access to the BritishNewspaper Archives which I have researched forJohn and those items naming 'McMichael' I havecopied and are attached. All must refer to John asat the time of John's service there is no furtherofficer named McMichael serving with the CheshireConstabulary.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. Sergeant 208 and 168 JohnMcMICHAEL. (His collar would change when he wasposted from one Division to another)Born. Circa 1834 Bargrannow, Kirkcudbright,Scotland. (None of the early records contain afull date of birth)Date of Entry. 19th September 1870Date of Leaving. 31st January 1893Re-appointed. Not applicable.Final Date of Leaving. 31st January 1893How Discharged. To pensionInitial Posting. HQ Reserve Division, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. September 1870 Wirral(Willaston). December 1880 Runcorn. June 1885Broxton.Miscellaneous Information. Subject appears on 1871Census as a serving Constable in WillastonVillage, Wirral. 1881 Census as a serving Sgt inRuncorn. 1891 Census Malpas Police Station HighStreet, as a serving Sgt. 1901 Census as a retiredPolice Officer and in 1901 and 1911 resident inHall St, Malpas Shropshire.Prior service of 4 years with Liverpool BoroughPolice (no dates of service recorded). There is apossibility that John may be record with thearchives of Merseyside police if you would like tomake contact with a Kate McNichol the ForceRecords Manager onable to assist you. I should point out that theremay be a considerable time delay in receiving areply from Merseyside as Kate can only deal witharchive enquires when time permits.Religion Protestant, Height 5' 8", Age 27, EyesBlue, Hair Brown, Complexion Ruddy, BuildProportional. Certificate of Service withcharacter marked "Very Good" issued to him.Age on retirement. 49 years 4 months.Total service. 26 years 154 days.Died. Whitchurch, Shropshire 29th October 1914aged 71 years 1 monthThe Generations NetworkPromotion. October 1878promoted 2nd class Sergeant. December 1880promoted Sergeant 1st class.Misconduct. 13th December 1887 Neglect of duty innot preventing Constable Bryan from assaultingThomas Carter at Hampton Heath, Admonished by theChief Constable.25th March 1889 Neglect to at once to follow up animportant clue to the robbery of nine sheep atCholmondeley, Reduced to 32/8d per week by theChief Constable.Weekly Pay. September 1870 20/-. December 187021/-. December 1871 22/-. August 1872 23/4d.December 1872 24/6d. January 1874 25/8d. January1876 26/10d. October 1876 28/-. December 1880 Sgt30/4d. 9th December 1882 31/6d. 2nd August 188432/8d. 20th December 1884 33/10d. 15th March 188932/8d. 1st January 1890 33/10d. 1st July 189137/4d.Annual Pay at retirement. £97.6s.8dRetired on annual pension of. £64.17s.9d.Total time on pension. 21 years 271 days.Total pension received. £1410.5.3d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. March 1880for Service 2 Good Conduct Badges. 2nd August 1884Long and Meritorious Service, Merit Badge and 2dper day additional pay.Marriage RecordOfficer. John McMICHAELOccupation. Police ConstableAge. 28 yearsCondition. BachelorPlace of residence at Marriage. Willaston,Cheshire.Date of Marriage. 4th March 1871Place Married. St. Nicholas Church, Liverpool.Fathers Name. And. McMichael (unfortunately I haveno idea what the forename of John's father was; Isuppose it could have been Andrew, etc.Fathers Occupation. Labourer, Cheshire.Spouse. Margaret DAVIES.Occupation. Servant.Age. 21 years.Condition. Spinster.Area of residence. Willaston, Cheshire.Fathers Name. John Davies.Fathers Occupation. Labourer, Cheshire.Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington. WA1 1LQTel : 01606 36 3848/5803www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk/