Kevin Ross

Thanks very much for this reply. Some names can be made out on the back, but sad to say I don’t suppose many if any of them are still with us. And one message would appear to be written in Gaelic or something!

Thanks very much for this reply. As I say, it seems unlikely to me - this would have made it tricky to get any sort of purchase, I’d have thought.

This truncheon belonged to my great grandfather, David Moore. He served as a Sergeant in the Devonport Borough Police. It can be seen that the truncheon has been shortened at the grip. My father, Sgt Moore’s grandson, has told me that this shortening was police practice of the time, and was done so the truncheons could more easily fit into pockets, Did this really happen? It doesn’t really sound credible to me. Sgt Moore died in 1917 and my father wasn’t born until 1930, so it’s an account heard at best at second hand, and things do get misremembered or altered in good faith when passed on. But I would be delighted to hear that this was indeed what Policemen did back then. Many thanks for any help.

I hope members will be interested in this photograph of the Metropolitan Police Training School in 1954. It came to me following the sad death of my mother Judy Ross nee Robson, who died last year aged 89. It seems to have been presented to her. Mum is far right as we look at it, third row up. She later served in Brixton Police Station, before her marriage to my father in 1958.

Further to the post upstream dated November 2 2017, I’ve attached a clip (from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from the ‘Western Morning News’ dated July 30 1897. So I’ve managed at least to put a date on this incident.:

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.)