1897 Jubilee Medal

[bigjarofwasps]

Ladies/Gents,

I recently bought a Jubilee/Coronation  medal group  to a Metropolitan Police Bobby. I haven't as yet obtained his service papers, but plan to do so in due course. Is anyone an authority on the 1897 Jubilee Medal? I was wondering just how long an Officer had to have been in service for in order to qualify for it. I believe you had to have been in 5 years to qualify for the 2012 version. Is the same true for the 1897 one or could an Officer have started his training he day before and qualified for it?

BJOW.

[Tom King]

To qualify for the 1897 medal they had to be serving Metropolitan Police (or City of London Police, which was a separate medal) officer on the day of the jubilee and not already in receipt of the 1887 medal in which case they received a bar marked 1897 for the 1887 medal. The 5 year service ruling is a modern concept only introduced For the QEII  Golden Jubilee medal.  

[bigjarofwasps]

To qualify for the 1897 medal they had to be serving Metropolitan Police (or City of London Police, which was a separate medal) officer on the day of the jubilee and not already in receipt of the 1887 medal in which case they received a bar marked 1897 for the 1887 medal. The 5 year service ruling is a modern concept only introduced For the QEII  Golden Jubilee medal.  

​Thanks Tom, that's very interesting!! Am I right then in thinking that you'd have to be an active officer on Division to qualify and not still in training?

[Tom King]

Interesting question and not one I can answer properly without further research. Initial training would have been very limited in 1897 and be based on military concepts i.e. marching etc, most training was done out on division. I am not sure when Peel House was established which served as a training facility for many years. I would also assume that on attestation Constables would have immediately be assigned a divisional number. So new recruits so to speak would probably be shown on divisional strengths. Again this is an assumption on my part so if anyone else can enlighten us I would be pleased to hear it.

[bigjarofwasps]

Interesting question and not one I can answer properly without further research. Initial training would have been very limited in 1897 and be based on military concepts i.e. marching etc, most training was done out on division. I am not sure when Peel House was established which served as a training facility for many years. I would also assume that on attestation Constables would have immediately be assigned a divisional number. So new recruits so to speak would probably be shown on divisional strengths. Again this is an assumption on my part so if anyone else can enlighten us I would be pleased to hear it.

​

Interesting question and not one I can answer properly without further research. Initial training would have been very limited in 1897 and be based on military concepts i.e. marching etc, most training was done out on division. I am not sure when Peel House was established which served as a training facility for many years. I would also assume that on attestation Constables would have immediately be assigned a divisional number. So new recruits so to speak would probably be shown on divisional strengths. Again this is an assumption on my part so if anyone else can enlighten us I would be pleased to hear it.

​

Thanks Tom, that's certainly something for me to look into further!

[Odin Mk 3]

Officers were allocated their division when they attested which was probably the day they joined the Met - they would then have gone to their allocated division immediately. 

I suspect the list of recipients for the 1897 (and other Police Jubilee / Coronation) Medals was probably taken from the weekly pay lists for each division.  Therefore if you were on the pay list for the week the Jubilee occurred then you got the medal.  There are a few pay lists for 1891 in the National Archives but I suspect there may more around somewhere. If there are anymore it would be interesting to know as they show which sub division the man was serving in. 

I have come across the odd medal to men who had actually been discharged just before the Jubilee / Coronation.  It may be their name had not yet been deleted from the pay list. 

A sample of a list for Y Div Highgate, Sub Division Kentish Town is attached:

[bigjarofwasps]

Thanks Odin, that's very interesting and something that I'll certainly look into!!!