This picture meant a lot to my father; it was taken several years before he was born and is a lovely insight into the life of the police force in the early part of the twentieth century. Taken between 1910 and 1912 it shows the Cambridgeshire County Police force being inspected by the Lord Lieutenant at Castle Hill in Cambridge.
My grandfather, Harry is the right-hand constable in the group of two who are immediately ahead of the inspection party.
Harry joined the police force in March 1900 and was initially posted to Chesterton, moving to Soham in May the same year. It was in Soham, where he met my grandmother, Elizabeth, whose family had lived in Soham for many years. When Harry was moved to Bassingbourn (at the other side of the county) in September 1903, Harry & Elizabeth obviously couldn’t bear to be parted for long, as they were married in December 1903.
Harry was stationed at several different Cambridgeshire villages, including Bassingbourn and Fowlmere, before becoming a Sergeant at the Sawston station in October 1919.
In the background of the photo are the walls of the old County gaol, which was demolished in 1932; the replacement building is still on the site and , replaced with the Shire Hall building that is now Shire Hall, Cambridge.
When my father was a little boy he visited the gaol with his father. In his memoirs, Dad recalls being horrified by the execution ‘shed’, and no wonder, as he was only seven when Grandad, by that time a Sergeant at Sawston in Cambridgeshire, retired from the police force in 1926 after twenty-six years’ service. Harry continued to live in Sawston after his retirement, enjoying family life with his wife and six children until he died in January 1943, age 66.
At this time, all the beats were walked on foot, which in the country meant covering many miles a day. My father remembered Harry acquiring a bicycle not long before he retired. The area that Sawston police covered was considerable, much of it rural; it included the main road to Newmarket, which is where he attended this accident taking members of Tattersalls to Newmarket for race day. It’s not clear if Harry had a bicycle by this time, but it also meant that incidents like the one in this article would not be attended very swiftly
My grandfather, Harry is the right-hand constable in the group of two who are immediately ahead of the inspection party.
Harry joined the police force in March 1900 and was initially posted to Chesterton, moving to Soham in May the same year. It was in Soham, where he met my grandmother, Elizabeth, whose family had lived in Soham for many years. When Harry was moved to Bassingbourn (at the other side of the county) in September 1903, Harry & Elizabeth obviously couldn’t bear to be parted for long, as they were married in December 1903.
Harry was stationed at several different Cambridgeshire villages, including Bassingbourn and Fowlmere, before becoming a Sergeant at the Sawston station in October 1919.
In the background of the photo are the walls of the old County gaol, which was demolished in 1932; the replacement building is still on the site and , replaced with the Shire Hall building that is now Shire Hall, Cambridge.
When my father was a little boy he visited the gaol with his father. In his memoirs, Dad recalls being horrified by the execution ‘shed’, and no wonder, as he was only seven when Grandad, by that time a Sergeant at Sawston in Cambridgeshire, retired from the police force in 1926 after twenty-six years’ service. Harry continued to live in Sawston after his retirement, enjoying family life with his wife and six children until he died in January 1943, age 66.
At this time, all the beats were walked on foot, which in the country meant covering many miles a day. My father remembered Harry acquiring a bicycle not long before he retired. The area that Sawston police covered was considerable, much of it rural; it included the main road to Newmarket, which is where he attended this accident taking members of Tattersalls to Newmarket for race day. It’s not clear if Harry had a bicycle by this time, but it also meant that incidents like the one in this article would not be attended very swiftly
We are lucky that many pictures and documents survive from Harry’s time in the police force, but the picture of the parade is probably the most treasured for the historical significance of the gaol in the background.
We have no idea who drew this sketch of Harry, but my father said that it was a very true likeness! If you compare the sketch with the photographs, you can see that indeed it is brilliant
We have no idea who drew this sketch of Harry, but my father said that it was a very true likeness! If you compare the sketch with the photographs, you can see that indeed it is brilliant