Constable 118S John Thomas HOUNDSOME Metropolitan Police

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John Thomas Houndsome

John Thomas Houndsome, born in Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire on 18 October 1868, was the second child of James Houndsome, a private in the Royal Marines, and Louisa White. 
He joined the Royal Engineers at Gosport on 19 January 1888 aged nineteen. His height given as 5` 11" chest as 35" weight 9.7 stone and his occupation as Messenger. He is given the regimental number 22412 but was discharged as medically unfit at Aldershot having served just sixty-eight days and having spent a month in hospital with rheumatic fever which had weakened his heart.  Upon discharge his intended place of residence is given as 20 Leesland Road, Gosport, his parents are given as living at 24 Leesland Road. 
He then went to work nearby for a dairyman, Harry Holding.
Until he joins the Metropolitan Police on 30 September 1889. 
He gives his occupation as labourer and his height now 6` chest 35.5" weight 11 stone. The fact that he was medically discharged from the army doesn't appear to have been an issue. 
The work with Mr Holding perhaps helped him recover his health and make him grow a bit and put some weight on!
He is firstly posted to S Division and  was stationed in Barnet and lodged with eight other Police Constables in the section house of the police station at 26 High Street. 
On Saturday the 24th October 1891 he appears in the local paper - The Barnet Press - following a case of a local woman who by the sounds of things was prone to drink.
"Thwaites again - On Thursday before C H Cook Esq JP. Elizabeth Thwaites a char woman of no home was charged with having been drunk and assaulted PC Thomas Houndsome. It appears that the Constable found the woman disorderly in the street and took her to the police station. When placed in the dock she took off her boot and threw it at the Constable striking him in the eye making it bleed - remanded. 
On the 9th May 1892 he was transferred to Portsmouth Dockyard.
Returning to S Divsion on the 7th June 1894 and stationed at Shenley Police Station on Harris Lane. 
He married Emma Green, who had worked as a cook in Barnet, on 20 August 1894 at St Botolph’s, Shenleybury.
They lived in London Road at No 3 Grove Place next door to Sergeant Sackville Boobyer and his family. 
Kathleen, their only child, was born in November 1896. 
In 1897 he qualifies for the Diamond Jubilee Medal. 
In 1901 he is present in a photograph of named officers at Shenley Police Station. At this point his collar number is 118 S. 
In 1902 he qualifies for the Coronation Medal. 
After living in Shenley for about twelve years Thomas was transferred to Edgware in 1906/07 and they moved to Capel Terrace in Meads Road. 
He died on 27 December 1909 aged forty-one and was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence, Little Stanmore.
 

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Handy link for anyone interested in the Victorian policing of Hertfordshire.

 

https://shenleymiscellany.wordpress.com

 

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by bigjarofwasps