X PatronGerald Cavendish GrosvenorDuke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DLOur ref: JT70/12Thomas PARRISHDear Janet,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Thomas 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 5. 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 Thomas'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. The cost of yourreport is £10, and given the above information Ifeel certain that you will agree that thisrepresents 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 you areever back in the UK and you would like to visitplease forward a quick mail a couple of weeksbefore and I feel certain the Curator Mr. PeterWroe and Staff will do everything possible toaccommodate 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.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. Police Constable 478 ThomasPARRISH.Born. 1888 Cheshire, none of the early recordsgive a full date of birth however, I have found acopy of his baptism record dated 14th August 1888at Middlewich a copy of the record is attached.Date of Entry. 18th September 1909.Date of Leaving. 22nd September 1934.Re-appointed. Not applicable.Final Date of Leaving. 22nd September 1934.How Discharged. To pension.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve Division, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. 27th November 1910Crewe, 1st April 1912 Woolstanwood Crewe. 1stDecember 1919 Crewe, 14th March 1920 Farndon, 10thMarch 1923 Tarvin, 1st June 1923 Broxton, 8thFebruary 1924 Crewe, 1st April 1927 Sale.Miscellaneous Information. Previous OccupationAsylum Attendant. Religion Protestant, Height 5'10", Age 21, Eyes Grey, Hair Brown, ComplexionFresh, Build Proportional. Distinguishing MarksNil.Age on retirement. 46 years.Total service. 25 years 5 days.Died. Bucklow, Cheshire July to September quarter1964, aged 75 years.The Generations NetworkPromotion. 14th March 1920promoted acting Sergeant. 10th March 1923 promotedSergeant. 28th May 1923 Reduced to the rank ofConstable.Misconduct. 28th May 1923 Being drunk and unfitfor duty at his Station at 1.40am and neglect ofduty by not visiting Constables in his Sectionduring their tour of night duty, Reduced to therank of Constable from 1st June 1923 by the ChiefConstable29th June 1926 Drunkenness, i.e. being under theinfluence of drink at his station (in thisinstance station means home address) while on RestDay and unfit for duty, Fined £2.10s. 0d.Weekly Pay. 18th September 1909 25/1d, 18thSeptember 1910 26/3d, 18 September 1911 26/10d,1st April 1912 29/2d, 18th September 1912 30/4d,18th September 1914 31/6d, 1st July 1915 32/8d,18th September 1916 33/10d, 30th September 191840/10d, 10th November 1918 51/-, 1st April 191988/-, 18th September 1919 90/-, 10th September1923 Sgt £5, 1st June 1923 reduced to 90/-.Retired on annual pension of. £149.12s. 5d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. 19th May1921 examination to the rank of Sergeant taken andpassed.Marriage RecordOfficer. Thomas PARRISHOccupation. Police Constable.Age. 22 years.Condition. Bachelor.Place of residence at Marriage. Crewe, Cheshire.Date of Marriage. 21st August 1911.Place Married. Registrar's Office, Nantwich,Cheshire.Fathers Name. Edward PARRISH.Fathers Occupation. Basket maker.Spouse. Elsie WOOLNOUGH.Occupation. Not recorded.Age. 23 years.Condition. Spinster.Area of residence. Worleston, Near Crewe,Cheshire.Fathers Name. William WOOLNOUGH.Fathers Occupation. Gardener.Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington. WA1 1LQTel : 01606 36 3848/5803www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk/