X Armariath ATKINDear David,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Armariath, 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. Firstly I apologise forthe delay but your report had to be a little moredetailed than I expected. Sadly as I said we donot have a photograph, that is to say we may,there are literally hundreds of photographs ofofficers, but their names were never recorded onthe reverse of the photograph.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. 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 inVolumes 1 and 2. The information regarding hismarriages is retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. Andwith regard to his pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965.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 £81, so please be aware. The Museum charges,for searching the three volumes are on a reducingscale i.e. dependant on the information recorded,the maximum amount payable is £10, whichrepresents good value. Your remittance is £10 andas we are working on a trust basis please forwardpayment by cheque made payable to the 'Museum ofPolicing in Cheshire' and send it to The Curator,Mr. Peter Wroe, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, 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.I should point out here that Armariath is withregard to misconduct, an exception to the rule, ashe has no misconduct reports against him. Thereare not many officers between the period of 1878and 1881 that did not fall foul of the then ChiefConstable John William Arrowsmith, who was an exArmy Captain and whom I can only describe as anautocratic bully.Where the reference BSI appears in the MuseumDatabase this applies to a website known as theBlack Sheep Index (www.blacksheepindex.co.uk) thisis a site that carries newspaper articlesconcerning Police Officers. On occasions theofficer's full name is not given, but we havetried to make a match against what the MuseumRecords show. The index shows one entry forArmariath dated 1910 and refers to his obituary.There are charges involved to obtain thesenewspaper cuttings direct from the owner of thewebsite. It is emphasized that the Museum does notknown the contents of these cuttings and takes noresponsibility for them. The Museum is onlyshowing this as an aid that there is furtherinformation from another source. However shouldsend for these cuttings please mention the Museum,it will not get you the cutting any cheaper but itmay speed up the process.We are also very fortunate to have what are knownas 'General Orders' these are hand written Volumesconcerning the daily running of the CheshireConstabulary from 1857 onwards. I am currentlytranscribing these Volumes which number 35 intotal, each containing approximately 800 pages. Sofar only the years 1857 to 1879 have beentranscribed. Whilst these Volumes will scan, theycannot be searched automatically because the OCRwill just not recognize script handwriting. Tocomplete this project it will take about threeyears, and therefore I have only been able toresearch between the above dates for anythingappertaining to Armariath. I have cut and pastedwhat it recorded other than his pay increases. Itdoes not show any awards granted by the Chief forany arrests he may have made. Whilst I have nodoubt that he did make a numerous arrests duringhis service between 1860 and 1879 post this heremained as Assistant to the Chief Clerk andeventually becoming Chief Clerk, in other wordsafter 1879 he was employed on a purelyAdministrative roll. I am denigrating this roll inanyway, as in those days without the writtenadministration the force would just not havefunctioned. At this very moment I am actuallytranscribing one of the pages that Armariath haswritten, he has made my task very easy as hishandwriting is a delight to read and nothing shortof perfect script.You will also note in 1879 Armariath was given therank of Sergeant Major, all I can say on this isthat never in any other Police Force has a PoliceOfficer be given this rank and it was apeculiarity that the Chief Constable (Arrowsmith)gave it to Armariath and an officer named Clifton,(ex Army Sergeant), he being responsible for theteaching of 'Drill'. Again he was later promotedto Sub Inspector, and is just another version ofthe rank Acting Inspector. As I said before ChiefConstable Arrowsmith was an ex Army Officer andalso with my opinion of him being an autocraticbully, I believe he saw the Cheshire Constabularyas his own private Army, as a side note Arrowsmithwas also not averse to practicing nepotism, heactually appointing his two sons in the force, oneas a Superintendent and the other as an Inspector.When you get a moment, would you kindly send me aquick mail so I can mark of your enquiry ascomplete? If you have any comments good or badplease make them known, we are a very new Museumand although not supported by the CheshireConstabulary, they are still our 'masters' so tospeak.On a final note, with regard to both yourGrandparents resident in Middlewich within thelast month or so a book entitled "Images ofEngland, Middlewich" has been published itcontains over 200 photographs of the area between1800 and the 1970's (ISBN 9780752435206).Incidentally one of the authors Paul Hurley is aretired Cheshire Police Officer, we both liveabout 4 miles from Middlewich.If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me. Best wishes Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. Superintendent 5 ArmariathATKINBorn. 1835 Prestbury, Cheshire.Date of Entry. 3rd July 1860Date of Leaving. 31st October 1890Final Date of Leaving. 31st October 1890.How Discharged. To Pension.Initial Posting. HQ Chester, where appears to havecompleted all his service.Miscellaneous Information. Height 5' 7", ReligionProtestant, Age 25, Eyes Grey, Hair Sandy,Complexion Fresh, Build Proportional. Age onretirement 55 years 4 months. Total service 30years 121 days. Died 19th February 1910 NantwichDistrict, aged 74 years 7 months. Certificate ofDischarge given with Character reference given as"Most Exemplary".Promotion/Misconduct. No Misconduct reportsrecorded. July 1879 Promoted Assistant ChiefClerk, with rank of Sgt Major. 22nd November 1883Promoted Sub Inspector. 26 March 1889 PromotedSuperintendent Chief Clerk at £150 per annum.Discharged on Pension of £100 per annum. Totaltime on pension 19 years 111 days. Total pensionreceived £1930. 8s. 2d.Weekly Pay. Initial after training 19/- to 20/-.13th April 1861. 20/- to 21/-. 16th November 1861.March 1864 22/2d. May 1866 23/2d. August 186824/6d. February 1870 Promoted Sergeant at 25/2d.September 1870 26/2d. December 1870 27/2d. October1871 28/2d. December 1872 29/2d. August 187230/4d. October 1872 31/6d. September 1875 32/8d.January 1876 33/10d. His pay after this is notrecorded with his personal record but will berecorded within the not yet transcribed GeneralOrders.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. April 1864Continuous good and trustworthy conduct, AwardedMerit Badge and 2d per day.Marriage RecordOfficer. Armariath ATKIN.Occupation. Silk WeaverAge. 19 years.Condition. Bachelor.Place of residence at Marriage. Hurdsfield,Cheshire.Date of Marriage. 25th September 1854.Place Married. St. Georges Church, Macclesfield.Cheshire. Fathers Name. Samuel ATKINFathers Occupation. Silk Weaver, Cheshire.Spouse. Caroline HARTHERN. (I have looked at the1851 Census for Caroline and she is recorded underthe name Caroline HARDERN)Occupation. Silk Piercer.Age. 19 yearsCondition.Place of residence. Sutton, Macclesfield.Cheshire.Fathers Name. Joseph HARTHERN.Fathers Occupation. Silk Weaver.