Devonport Borough Police

[Kevin Ross]

David Moore cut out newspaper articles which mentioned him, or which he found interesting. They have been carefully kept all these years, and I post one here in the hope that forum members find it of interest.

No record has been kept of this article's date: but P.C. Moore was promoted to Sergeant on 19 September 1907.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Kevin Ross

[coldstream]

Kev,

Very interesting and brings home just how dangerous things were before the advent of Police radios. A shrill blast on the whistle and hope for the best in those days!

Please keep posting the items you have, very interesting.

Thanks again Simon

[Kevin Ross]

I did say in post #26 that these cuttings had been carefully kept. Despite this, as you will see, this clipping has at some stage in its long life, been damaged. But here it is, again undated (but the office 'Mayor of Devonport' became obsolete in 1914):

Edited November 2, 2017 by Kevin Ross

[Kevin Ross]

Just what did P.C.Moore come across here? Drunken boisterousness? Homosexual solicitation?

I've also attached a map from 1907, and a modern map. P.C.Moore (and I!) lived in 1 Mayon Cottages, Penlee Road. Somerset Place can be seen on both maps; Penlee Road on the modern map; Mayon Cottages on the 1907. You can see how close these locations are.

P.C. Moore and his colleagues of the Devonport Borough Police policed the streets where they lived. It seems to me that when we lost this, we lost a great deal.

[Kevin Ross]

A dated clip - 29 September 1899.

Penlee Cottage can be seen on the 1907 map in post #29: it's on Molesworth Road, just to the west of the 'MOLE'.

Penlee Cottage survived the Blitz, and still stands. (Unlike Beaumont House, at the centre-right of the image. But Beaumont House wasn't bombed - it was destroyed when a Junkers 88 crashed on top of it. My father, now aged 87 but then a schoolboy, crouching in an Anderson shelter just outside 1 Mayon Cottages, remembers this very well.)

[Kevin Ross]

An addendum or postscript to post #30: I do hope that members find it interesting. It's a 1991 letter from my late grandmother to a local newspaper.

[Kevin Ross]

The Devonport Borough Police outside their police station (Sgt Moore sitting second to the left, with his feet crossed at the ankles). The police station was at the rear of Devonport Guildhall, in the heart of old Demport. By a miracle the Guildhall survived the Blitz. 

And a photograph of the building today. It served, I understand, as a police station into the 1960s.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Kevin Ross
Merlot

[Kevin Ross]

In the first photograph here (from 'Streetview') the building on our left is the old Devonport police station. The buliding on our right is/was a pub, the 'Crown and Column'. How far from front door to front door? 20 yards?

The 'Crown and Column' appears in a 1889 Directory, and in the 1891census. So, at least 70-odd years as a coppers' boozer. What stories it could tell!

The police station closed in the 60s, and the 'Crown and Column' closed in 2008. I believe it is now in residential use.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Kevin Ross

[Kevin Ross]

On I plod.

Two more newspaper cuttings from my great grandfather David Moore's collection of same. In the cutting dated 5 June 1904, "REMARKABLE DEVONPORT CASE" he is not mentioned; but presumably he was involved in this matter in some way:

[coldstream]

Kev,

Thanks for posting these, enjoying reading them and sad to see another Pub turned into a House!

Simon.

[Kevin Ross]

The attached newspaper cutting is from 1912. It concerns the annual Government inspection of the local police forces by HM Inspector of Force for the Southern Division. It can be seen that the rank structure for the Devonport Borough Police (called here the "Dockyard borough force" - an odd mistake) would appear rather straightforward: Chief Constable; inspector; sergeant; constable.

But on the attached photograph there is clearly a differential in uniform coat of senior officers - the simpler coat of those sat next to the Chief Constable (and therefore senior?), and the more ornate of those sat further away. 

I'd be grateful for any advice on what the rank structure of this force might have been. With thanks in advance.

By the way, the Inspector Dain of the inspection parade can be seen in the attached photograph of the Devonport Borough Police boat crew. Also to be seen - Sgt D Moore.

[NickLangley]

This is a fascinating thread . For instance, how would we react, nowadays, to a presiding magistrate who is: the mayor, but also a member of the Watch Committee and the de facto and de jure boss of the the Pc who made the arrest and the prosecuting Chief Constable?

Where's my lawyer?

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by NickLangley
typo

[Kevin Ross]

My thanks to anyone who might have given some thought to my question in post #36. But I have found the answer here:

http://www.olddevonport.uk/Policing Old Devonport-Pay Scales 1904.htm

As it happens this page of information raises more questions than it answers. But, there it is.

[Kevin Ross]

It is the 9th of May, 1910. The Mayor of Devonport, Alderman William Littleton, is reading the Proclamation of the coming to the throne of King George V. Alderman Littleton is on the steps of Devonport Guildhall.

Present, in addition to various local worthies and the Devonport Borough Police, is the 1st Battalion, the South Staffordshire Regiment. 

This Battalion was in South Africa by 1914, and did lot arrive in France until early October. Within a month of landing, 243 men of the Battalion had been killed. By the end of 1914, fatalities were 270. By the end of 1915, the Battalion had lost 538 of its men.

So we can see that many of the young men on parade that day did not have so very long to live.

I have also attached a newspaper clipping of 10 May 1914.

(My thanks to the Great War Forum for the details on this post.)

[Kevin Ross]

I saw this tunic button on ebay the other day, and, in the spirit of keeping things all in one place, thought I'd put it up here.

Edited January 14 by Kevin Ross

[Kevin Ross]

The attached newspaper clipping came to me from my second cousin, the grandson of Frederick Moore (he of post #11). I have assumed the handwriting on the clipping is Frederick's, and that he recognised his father David Moore: in any event, somebody put a cross against the Sergeant in the front row, and named him.

The newspaper made a couple of mistakes: the photograph is not of the "Plymouth Force" - the policemen are wearing the uniform of the Devonport Borough Police; and they are sitting on the steps of Devonport Guildhall (as to be seen in post #39). And the date would appear to be wrong  - David Moore became a Sergeant in 1907.

I've also attached the article, by one David Stewart. It is from the 'Sunday Independent', July 6th 1975.

 

 

Edited January 15 by Kevin Ross