Written by PC Kevin Gordon, BTP History Society
The first railway police
The modern police service owes much to Sir
Patrick Colquhoun (1745-1820) who published a treatise entitled The
Police of the Metropolis in 1796. He recommended the creation of a
centralised police service for the country and the use of men
specifically trained for the purpose. After much discussion and a
series of Parliamentary Committees, Sir Robert Peel introduced his
famous Act of Parliament in 1829, which led to the creation of the
Metropolitan Police.
When the first 'Peelers' stepped out onto the
streets of London, railways were already in existence; the first
Railway Act is dated 1758. Railways however, were used to carry
goods a short distance and horsepower provided the locomotion. In
1830 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was formally opened by
the Duke of Wellington. It was the first public railway in the
world to transport traffic (goods and passengers) by locomotive,
but the occasion was marred by the first railway fatality; the Rt.
Hon. William Huskisson disobeyed the railway company's instructions
and alighted from the train onto the track and was struck by a
passing engine. This accident and the difficulties in crowd control
on the day underlined the need for policing the railway. A
contemporary account of the event says: "The (local) garrison was
under arms and at various points within the site of the railway…
cavalry were placed. Without this display of military force there
would certainly have been a breach of the peace, the populace
having taken possession of many parts of the railway."
Within a few months of both the introduction
of the Metropolitan Police and the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway, the first railway police force was formed. In
November 1830, minutes of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
refer to "The Police Establishment" and less than a year later it
is satisfactory to note a pay rise was given to the railway police
due to the responsibility of their office.
These early railway policemen were probably
sworn in as special constables under a statute passed in 1673
during the reign of Charles II. They were appointed to:
- Preserve law and order on the construction site of the
railway
- Patrol and protect the line
- Control the movement of railway traffic
- To this end, station houses were placed at one mile intervals
along the line to provide shelter for the railway police. The term
'police station' used by most police forces probably derives from
these buildings.
The Railway Companion in 1833, referring to
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, says: "The company keep a Police
Establishment who have station houses at intervals of about a mile
along the road. These stations form depots for passengers and goods
from or to any of the intervening places. The duties assigned to
these men are to guard the road, to prevent or give notice of any
obstruction and to render assistance in the case of any accident
occurring, and to do this effectively, to keep up a continued line
of communication."
In 1831 the Special Constables Act was passed
and railway policemen had jurisdiction not only on the railway but
in the area in which they were appointed. The London, Birmingham
and Liverpool Railway Companion of 1838 reports: "Each Constable,
besides being in the employ of the company, is sworn as a County
Constable; they receive the same pay and wear a dress similar to
that of the Metropolitan Police, except in colour, which is green."
In the same year The Great Western Railway Police wore uniforms
"with a stand-up collar in scarlet cloth with GWR and a number
thereon…hats are similar to the Metropolitan Police and Inspectors
are distinguished by a red stripe of an inch and a quarter on the
trousers".
Most constables carried elaborately painted
truncheons bearing the crest of the Railway Company. Inspectors
carried a brass or ivory 'tipstaff' surmounted by a crown.
In order to regulate trains, watches, flags
and lamps were issued to each man (the Ulster Railway Police were
even issued with a shovel and a wheelbarrow to help remove
obstructions from the line). The watch was a rare item among
working men at this time and was used to ensure there was a
suitable delay between trains entering each section of track and
thus avoid collision. The flags were red and white, the former to
mean 'stop' the latter to mean 'all clear'.
If you look carefully at a £5 note you can see
a railway policeman on horseback, carrying a flag before an early
steam train.
The duties of these forerunners of the Police
Service were to maintain law and order on the railways and to
regulate the movement of trains. These somewhat static duties were,
however, to change in the next fifty years as the railway network
extended throughout the country.
The navigators
A huge workforce was required to build the
ever expanding railway system. Thousands of men previously used to
cut canals or 'navigations', were used to build stations, lay
track, dig cuttings, build embankments and excavate tunnels. Many
of these 'navvies' came from Ireland, Wales and even the continent
to get employment.
Large shanty towns would be set up in rural
areas to accommodate these men who all required food, drink and
other home comforts. These armies of rough workers with their
various 'hangers-on' brought fear into genteel rural Victorian
England. In 1836 the inhabitants of Slough and Buckinghamshire
asked for some of the newly formed Metropolitan Police to be sent
to protect them from the men building the railways, "the parochial
constable being totally unable to afford any protection".
An 1851 account of these early railway workers
says: "They injured everything they approached. From their huts to
the part of the railway they were working on, over corn and grass
they tore down embankments, injured young plantations, made gaps in
hedges with no regard to damage or the property they invaded. Game
disappeared from the most sacred preserves; game keepers were
defied; and country gentlemen who had imprisoned country rustics by
the dozen for violating the law shrank in despair of the railway
navigator."
Local justices appointed special constables to
help keep these invading armies under control but the cost, of
course, fell on the local ratepayers. In consequence, on 10 August
1838 an Act was passed which required Railway Companies to pay for
constables to keep the peace near railway works.
These Police Officers certainly had to work
hard for their money and often could not cope with the scale of
disorder that was caused. In 1839 when the Chester and Birkenhead
Railway was under construction fighting broke out between the
English and Irish 'navigators' and it was four days before order
was restored by a detachment of infantry.
In 1840 labourers murdered a ganger on the
Edinburgh to Glasgow Railway and it required a company of the 58th
Foot Infantry to arrest the ringleaders. The perpetrators were
subsequently hung on a makeshift scaffold beside the tracks.
In 1846 two navvies were arrested for stealing
watches and placed in a lock-up near Edinburgh. Other navvies
marched to the Police House, released the prisoners and murdered
the local constable. In Swindon, the same year, navvies tunnelled
under the floor of the lock-up to release one of their friends.
In 1851, even Brunel himself was involved with
the 'Battle of Mickleton' on Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton
Railway where the Riot Act had to be read out twice.
In 1866 the building of the railway near
Tunbridge Wells was delayed following skirmishes between English
labourers and foreign workers from France and Belgium who were
believed to have been employed to under cut English wage rates.
Houses where foreigners stayed were attacked by mobs and local
shops were closed and premises boarded up until order could be
restored by hastily sworn in special constables and the threat of
100 infantry men who were placed on alert at nearby barracks.
This use of special constables was not unusual
and often railway employees themselves were sworn in as 'specials'.
In 1848 for example, when there was a fear of revolution in the
country, the London and North Western Railway ordered 20,000 police
truncheons and at the same time the locomotive superintendent at
Wolverton had the whole of his workforce agree to be special
constables.
At this time towns such as Crewe, Slough and
Swindon , which were built to accommodate railway workers were
policed by the companies force. In 1846 the first Police Station in
Crewe was built by the railway who also appointed its officers.
A change of role
With the advent of mechanical signalling, the
telegraph to improve communication and the introduction of county
and borough police forces, the railway policeman's role 'lineside'
to protect the track and regulate traffic was surplus to
requirements. He found himself being called upon to prevent and
investigate crime and to assist with other station duties. An 1837
regulation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway required
intended passengers to apply to a constable for a ticket. He
required 24 hours notice and noted the "name, address, place of
birth, age, occupation and reason for the journey in his book".
This accounts for the term 'booking office'. If the journey was
considered to be for a "just lawful cause", a ticket would be
issued.
Crime on the railway
The continually expanding network of railways
gave criminals new opportunities to move around the country and
commit crime. The railways were pioneers of the electric telegraph
and its use often involved the arrest of criminals arriving or
departing by train. On 1 January 1845 a railway police sergeant
became the first person to arrest a murderer following the use of
an electric telegraph.
As the amount of merchandise carried by rail
increased the amount of thefts on the railways rose accordingly. In
1838 Her Majesty's Mails were conveyed by rail for the first time.
The first mail thefts were reported shortly afterwards. In 1848 the
Eastern Counties Railway lost 76 pieces of luggage in just one day,
and by the following year thefts from the largest six railways
amounted to more than £100,000 a year.
The goods manager at Euston wrote in 1853:
"Thieves are pilfering the goods from our wagons to an impudent
extent. Not a night passes without wine hampers, silk parcels,
draper's boxes or other provisions being robbed." Thefts of goods
were often committed by railway staff and in 1873 ten railmen were
sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for stealing from their
employers.
The first railway murder was committed by a
German called Muller, who robbed and killed a fellow passenger on a
train in north London in 1864.
The first arrest abroad by British police
occurred in 1874 when a Metropolitan Police inspector accompanied
by a railway police inspector went to the United States to arrest a
former employee who had embezzled from the Grand Metropolitan
Railway.
As claims for compensation for lost goods
increased, the Railway Companies decided to act by forming
detective departments. The London and North Western Railway and
Great Western Railway formed their CID in 1863 but had used police
officers in plain clothes to undertake special enquiries for
several years before. Writing in 1894 the historian John Pendleton
says: "The men in the detective departments on the railway do not
fall like the persons they track, into disgrace. They are patient,
enduring, and smart and sometimes do clever and important work that
has more than money value to the Company."
Decline
In certain cases, as the duties of the police
were diverted from traffic control to protective work, the control
of the Force was divided and the principal departments, such as the
operating and commercial department, had their own Police
Establishments. This led to a decline in the railway police at a
time when, after the passing of the 1856 County Police Act, County
Police Forces were being formed and becoming better organised.
Some railway companies such as the LNWR, the
Midland and the North Eastern Railway still maintained a police
force with uniforms and police powers, whereas others reduced their
forces, their duties being restricted to those in the companies
interests. Often they had to perform non-police related tasks and
one railway employed railmen unfit for normal duties as constables.
In the final decades of the last century many railways relied on
the new County Police to do the 'real' police work and hired in
detectives where necessary. The London, Brighton and South Coast
Railway at this time had a police force with uniforms. They had,
however, no police powers.
The railway police at the turn of the century
were therefore a hotchpotch of various forces, some with efficient
uniformed men but others with old and undisciplined officers,
'police' in name only and with a variety of duties to perform. In
Ilford, one poor railway police sergeant was blamed for a
collision, when he was dealing with a disturbance involving some
trespassers, when he should have been changing some points.
A time for change
From 1900 several railway companies
reorganised their police forces. The London, Brighton and South
Coast Railway virtually reformed their police force from scratch in
that year, followed by the Great Eastern, the North Eastern and
Midland in 1910, Caledonian in 1917 and the GWR in 1918.
As with almost all county and borough forces
these reorganised forces were headed by ex-army officers.
One of these railway police chiefs, Captain
Horwood of the NER Police later became commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police. The North Eastern Railway Police at this time
were the first police force in this country to use dog patrols. The
Penny Pictorial in 1910 reported: "The novel experiment by the NER
Police of employing dogs as detectives on the docks at Hull…
consist of a number of trained Airedale Terriers which, in company
with the Railway Police, patrol throughout the night and capture
thieves, tramps and other persons who may be sleeping out. The dogs
are trained to obey a police whistle and to chase and stop a man
who is running away." An accompanying photograph shows a sergeant
with a muzzled dog. Nearly all other police forces in the world
have followed suit.
A new century – a better deal
Reorganisation pulled the railway police with
a sharp tug into the 20th century. Pay, conditions and uniforms
were improved and establishments increased. One railway provided
training for its constables and facilities to improve their
education and manuals of guidance were issued. These reforms came
just in time, for the Great War was to put a huge strain on the
railways and its police.
In some railway police forces more than half
of the manpower was conscripted, the remaining officers being
supplemented by special constables and, for the first time, female
police officers. In 1914 the Great Eastern Railway Police recruited
nine women as special constables, one of the first police forces to
do so. Hours for the railway police increased and wages dropped.
Special wartime regulations gave police extra duties as the
railways became targets for bombers. Several stations received
direct hits including London's Liverpool Street and St. Pancras
where there were many casualties.
Between the wars
After the First World War many men returned to
their former jobs with the police. In 1919 the pay of all railway
police was standardised and the Railway Police Federation was
formed.
The 1921 Railways Act amalgamated more than
one hundred separate railway systems (of which about 20 had
organised police forces) into four groups:
The Great Western Railway (GWR)
The London and North Eastern Railway
(LN.R)
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway
(LMS)
The Southern Railway (SR)
Each had its own police force controlled by a
chief of police. These four forces were organised in the same way;
each split into a number of divisions headed by a superintendent,
and in turn divided into a number of divisional posts led by an
inspector. Detectives worked with their uniformed colleagues at
most locations. Many 'non-police' duties were retained however,
with officers acting as crossing keepers or locking and sealing
wagons.
During the General Strike of 1926 many members
of the public volunteered to work on the railway to keep it moving,
and the police issued them with identity cards. Special constables
were again employed and with the threat of sabotage the railway
policeman once again found himself walking the tracks to check for
obstructions, the same duties as his predecessors nearly 100 years
previously.
In 1935 Police Establishments increased. The
Southern Railway transferred existing employees into the police on
secondment and if found suitable they were appointed while the LMS
preferred ex-servicemen. The LNER Police trained their new entrants
by sending them to Metropolitan Police or other police training
centres to train with local police constables. This was, however,
the exception to the rule as most other entrants got a copy of the
Manual of Guidance and were ordered to attend lectures in their own
time.
Second World War
During the last war the strength of the
railway police doubled. With many men conscripted, special
constables and women police were again employed and this time
female officers were here to stay.
Virtually all officers were trained in the use
of firearms and many especially those at docks and ports carried
them all the time. In many cities bombing raids took their toll and
railway lines and stations received direct hits. In London 79
underground stations were used as shelters. A bomb near Balham
Station fractured a water main and 68 persons sheltering at the
station were drowned. A direct hit on Bank station caused the death
of 56 passengers. These were just two of the many incidents.
Large amounts of goods were carried by rail,
and with rationing thefts became a huge problem, with them being
helped by the many blackouts. Between 1941 and 1952 thefts on the
railway actually exceeded the total number of thefts reported by
all the police forces in England and Wales combined. Police
vigilance during the war was also required at the railway owned
docks such as Southampton, Hull, Grimsby and in South Wales where
the police also undertook duties on behalf of the War Department
and the Admiralty.
One officer worthy of note during the war was
Sergeant Huddart of Leicester who was rewarded the Kings Police
Medal for Gallantry after he tackled an armed man who shot at
him.
Unification
During the war the railways were run by a
Railway Executive Committee who set up a Police Committee formed by
each of the chiefs of police. This committee co-ordinated Britain's
railway police and reported to the Railway Executive.
The requirements for training were recognised
and in 1945 twelve experienced railway police officers from the
four main companies attended a special home office course for
police instructors. Their work subsequently led to the formation of
the Police Training College which was set up in a former boy's
school, St. Cross in Tadworth, Surrey in 1948.
The co-ordination of the Railways during the
war years worked well, for in 1947 the Transport Act created the
British Transport Commission which unified the railway system. On 1
January 1949 the British Transport Commission Police was created,
formed from the four old railway police forces, canal police and
several minor dock forces. The head of this new organisation was WB
Richards who was known as Chief Officer (Police) British Transport
Commission. He had six areas under him each led by a chief of
police. At the time of re-organisation the police establishment
consisted of 3,890 officers. The BTC Police was the second largest
police force in the country. At this time the London Transport
Police consisted of just 100 officers who amalgamated with the rest
of the force in 1960.
The Transport Act 1949 repealed legislation
relating to the railway police and from that year all members of
the Transport Police were appointed by virtue of Section 53. The
Act also laid down the jurisdiction of the Force and gave extra
powers to stop and search not enjoyed by other forces.
The new Force enjoyed better conditions of
service, but pay was lower than that of the 'civil' police perhaps
due to much non-police work still being done such as gate duties,
and sealing and locking goods wagons.
In 1957, an arbitrator granted pay parity with
the 'civil' police. This made such a large force even more
expensive to run, and The British Transport Commission set up an
inquiry to establish whether there was a need to maintain a
separate police for the railway at all. The Maxwell-Johnson enquiry
found that policing requirements for the railway could not be met
by civil forces and that it was essential that a specialist police
force be retained.
William Owen Gay
Arthur West left the Force in 1963 and William
Owen Gay became the new Chief Constable He had joined the Great
Western Railway Police as a constable after leaving university and
had steadily worked his way up through the ranks.
He was well liked and well known being a
prolific writer on police and law subjects and a regular
contributor to the BTP Journal and Police Review.
The new Chief Constable's first task was to
improve morale within the Force and this was done by persuading the
Police Committee to restore pay parity with other forces and
introduce a supplementary allowance to be paid in lieu of the rent
allowance paid to civil police. He also introduced a special police
pension scheme which had the effect of allowing officers to retire
younger and which therefore dropped the average age of the
Force.
In 1968 new recruits were sent to district
police training centres to train alongside their civil police
colleagues.
Improvements
In 1975 William Owen Gay retired and his
duties were taken on by Eric Haslem, the former Deputy Chief
Constable of the Kent Constabulary. Under Eric Haslem the Force
introduced new technology to assist in recording crime on the
railway. A computer system (PINS) was set up at Force Headquarters
to record crime reports. The BTP was the first Police Force in
Britain to use a computer to report and record crime.
In 1979 the Edmund Davies Committee looked
into police pay and awarded large pay rises for Home Office police
forces. Non-Home Office forces were not included, so again the pay
of the transport policeman fell below that of the civil police.
Once again morale dropped and many good officers left to join other
forces. The Wright Committee was established to look into the pay
of non-Home Office forces and thanks to the efforts of the
Federation and Assistant Chief Constable (Operations) Basil
Nichols, British Transport Police was the only non-Home Office
force to receive 100 per cent pay parity with Home Office
forces.
A marked increase in offences of violence on
the railway (particularly on the Underground) led to a Working
Conference being held in 1980. It was jointly chaired by the Home
Secretary and the Minister of Transport and the result of this
conference was a government commitment for extra financial
resources to provide better policing on the railways. An extra 100
officers were recruited for the Underground and mobile support
units were established to combat vandalism and late night violence
at well known trouble spots.
In 1981 Force Headquarters was transferred to
Tavistock Place in Central London.
Two setbacks for the Force occurred in the mid
1980s with London Buses deciding not to use the British Transport
Police in 1984, and the British Transport Docks Board making the
same decision the following year.
Following major incidents in the late 1980s
(particularly the Kings Cross fire in 1987) an officer was
appointed to co-ordinate major incident training and British
Transport Police has travelled the country giving this training to
other forces and emergency services.
During the late 1980s the British Transport
Police realised the benefits of recruiting civilians to take over
many non-police roles previously done by police officers.
Reorganisation
On 1 April 1992 under Chief Constable Desmond
O'Brien, British Transport Police was reorganised and divided into
eight Areas, each led by an Area Commander. 'Officers in charge of
police station' were appointed for each police station to manage
policing requirements.
1992 also saw the government's proposals to
privatise the railways and this has led to questions being asked
about the future of the Force. Successive governments have assured
the Force that it will remain the national police force for
policing the railways.
Policing into the millennium
The IRA targeted Britain's railways in the
early 1990s with bombs exploding on railway stations, lineside and
on trains. The problem was further compounded by numerous hoax
calls. In 1991 the Force dealt with 1,683 hoax calls and 1,391
suspect items. The Force continues to work long hours and liaise
with the security services to ensure that the railways are
safe.
The opening of the Channel Tunnel saw a
dedicated group of officers policing the international link to the
continent. During the European Football Tournament of 1998 a
British Transport Police Station was opened at Lille Railway
Station in France.
Train accidents at Southall, Paddington
Hatfield and Selby in Yorkshire again thrust the work of the Force
into the public arena. Officers worked long hours both on the sites
of the accidents and in the aftermath with the long and complex
investigations. The work of the Force was acknowledged by, amongst
others, Her Majesty the Queen and the Home Secretary.
To assist with the increasing pressure on the
Force, special constables have again been appointed.
Sources
The William O Gay Papers
British Transport Police Journal
"The Railway Policeman" (1960) - J.R.
Whitbread
A Brief History of The London Transport Police
- A.G. Peedle (1974)