A Brief History of the Hampshire Constabulary

    The present force is the result of an amalgamation in 1967 of the county forces of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight with the Southampton City and Portsmouth City police forces.

    The County Police Act of 1839 enabled justices, if they so wished, to maintain a paid police force either for the whole county or any part of it. The number of police­men in any such county force was not to exceed one for every thousand inhabitants and the cost was to be borne by the general county rates. It was as a result of this permissive act that the Hampshire Constabulary was formed in December 1839.

    At a meeting held at the Grand Jury Chamber in Winchester it was resolved that the county should adopt the provisions of the act and that the constabulary force should consist of:

    1 chief constable at a salary of £300 a year with an allowance for the purchase and forage of two horses of £100.

    2 superintendents. One for the Isle of Wight and one for Head­quarters at Winchester at £120 a year each.

12 superintendents for the remaining divisions at £75 a year each.

14 constables first class at 21s. per week each.

28 constables second class at 19s. per week each.

49 constables third class at 18s. per week each.

    Especial emphasis was put on the need for smartness of appearance. Uniform coats were to be kept buttoned, clean white gloves of regulation patterns were invariably to be worn on duty and above all no shirt collars were to be allowed to appear. From time to time individuals were singled out for censure. One man was denounced for “lounging along like any old cadger with his greatcoat thrown over his shoulders like a blanket or a woman’s shawl, as if drill and discipline, greatcoat straps and the use of them, orders and instructions regarding dress and general appear­ance were unknown in Hampshire”.

    The most common offences dealt with were larceny (theft), damage to property, drunk and disorderly and desertion from the armed forces. In 1855 the value of property stolen was £1,172, of which £512 was recovered.

    In 1856 the superintendents of Hampshire Constabulary were appointed Inspectors of Hawkers Licences and the chief constable pointed out that by “an active performance of these duties much benefit will arise to the public revenue of the county” in that when penalties were inflicted on unlicensed hawkers one moiety would be paid “to the Constabulary Superannuation Fund, thus increasing the fund for the pensioning of old and deserving constables and members of the force who may be disabled in the service of the county”.

    In 1846 the force was increased from its original strength of 106 to 165. This was at a time when the population of the greater Hampshire County area was 76,000. The Borough police areas were much smaller in the early days.

    Even with the proposed increase in the force, the Hampshire Constabulary would still be weaker in proportion to the population than had earlier seemed desirable. Each police officer would still have to be responsible for 1,200 or 1,300 inhabitants of the county.

    The Hampshire Constabulary was growing in numbers and also in the area it was concerned with. In 1846 Andover Borough joined the county and in 1852 Lymington followed suit. In 1865 Romsey’s police were to be incorporated into the county force, to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. The historic city of Winchester, the ancient capital of Saxon England, however, remained aloof.  The citizens of Winchester, indeed, may be justly proud of the fact that an organised police force was estab­lished in Winchester in 1832, before the Hampshire Constabulary itself came into existence. It was not until 1943 that Winchester City Police were amalgamated into Hampshire.

    In 1874 came the beginning of a CID., when approval was given to the chief constable sending “the officers selected for the Detective Depart­ment” to be attached to the Metropolitan Police for instruction. At the end of 1875 the Earl of Carnarvon, on resigning as chairman of Quarter Sessions, commented proudly on the manifold improvements in the force brought about during the previous two years.

    At this time (1875)  great annoyance to the public seems to have been caused by the large number of vagrants who roamed about and the police were hard put to cope with the problem.

    Throughout the second quarter-century of the Hampshire force’s existence, the formidable character of Chief Constable Captain Forrest was to be found at the centre of all activity. He could be harsh and autocratic, and perhaps unjust. Yet it is impossible to withhold admiration for the devotion and drive he brought to the work of governing the force and of hammering it into an increasingly efficient organisation. He could bestow praise and commendation most generously. He could also scourge slackness unmercifully. Repeatedly he thundered against infringements of the regulations regarding uniform and even more against any inadequacy or lack of zeal in the performance of day-to-day duty. There was the unceasing problem of drunkenness. But also there were constables who lost or damaged equipment, ruined their uniform and failed to keep such things as lanthorns (lanterns) in good condition.

    Captain Forrest retired on superannuation in March 1891 and was succeeded as chief constable by Captain Peregrine Henry Thomas Fellowes. This officer had had an active and varied military career, and was appointed by the Standing Joint Committee from among seventy-four applicants. He was in his fortieth year, strikingly handsome, and seems to have been the very model, the “beau ideal”, of a Victorian gentleman.

Original HQ in Romsey Road Winchester

    Captain Fellowes, was tragically fatally injured as a result of his brave action in attempting to stop a runaway horse in October 1893 outside police headquarters and was succeeded as chief constable by Major St. Andrew Bruce Warde, whose term of office was to equal in length that of Captain Forrest. Regardless of this change of leadership, the work of the force went on ceaselessly. In 1893 thirty Hampshire officers were sent to help the Nottinghamshire police to suppress the riots taking place in that area in connection with the coal strike.

    Major Warde was to remain chief constable until 1928 and to preside over the force throughout the tumultuous opening decades of the twentieth century, including the portentous years of the First World War. The arrival of motorised transport on a large scale, the impact on everyday life of modern warfare, the changes inherent in an increasingly complex and mobile society -all these created problems with which inevitably the police had to contend. It is a truism that all periods are periods of change. Yet seldom in British society have there been such broad and deep changes as occurred during this time. Between the 1890s and the 1920s stretches a tremendous quagmire of technical advance, social dislocation, and armed violence.

    In 1898 a so-called “Gipsy Diary” was issued to each sergeant in charge of a sub-division, and also to the appropriate sergeant at the divisional station, in order that a careful record might be kept of the gypsies in each district. On the basis of statistics supplied by the constables on the beat, numbers and other relevant particulars were to be noted.

    In the last decade of the nineteenth century some details of police work were changing. The task of inspecting weights and measures, which had been a continual preoccupation of the force, apparently ceased in 1891 with the appointment of inspectors of weights and measures.

    In June 1899 First-Class Constable Jennings was commended for his prompt action in a case of larceny at Meonstoke. He had traced the two men suspected on his bicycle, and had arrested them at Guildford with the stolen property in their possession.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the population of Hampshire was over 400,000 occupying a total acreage not far short of one million.

    The humble bicycle remained an increasingly important tool of everyday police work. Indeed, on the eve of his retirement in 1906, Mr. Sillence, the deputy chief constable, who had witnessed the intro­duction of the bicycle into the force, expressed the opinion that “in my humble judgment it is the very best thing that could ever have been intro­duced. Bicycles have been of the greatest service”.

    The telephone came ever more into use in these opening years of the twentieth century. In 1906 the police stations at Fleet, Romsey and Emsworth were connected with the National Tele­phone Company, and had the numbers of 8. 9 and 10 respectively.

    At the end of 1929 the authorised strength of the force, other than the chief constable, consisted of one assistant chief constable, ten super­intendents, nine inspectors, one sergeant-major, fifty-six sergeants and 432 constables. In April 1931 the Home Secretary approved the strength of the force being increased to 530. Further increases took place in 1936 and 1939, until at the outbreak of war the Hampshire Constabulary numbered 635.

    It was only in 1929 that the first motor vehicle was provided for the Isle of Wight Constabulary, in the shape of a B.S.A. twin motor-cycle combination which was used on motor patrol and other duties.

    In WW2 the heavy air raids on southern England in 1940 and 1941 gave only too many opportunities for police officers to distinguish themselves by their alacrity and courage. In May 1941, for example, the chief constable announced with pleasure that the King had approved the award of the British Empire Medal, Civil Division, to Inspector I. McDonagh “for his initiative in arranging mutual aid for fire fighting and entering burning buildings at considerable risk to himself, during intensive bombing, at Gosport on the night of January 10/11th, 1941.

    The war was over but life was still very straitened in Great Britain. Food and clothing were still subject to rationing, and were to remain so for some years to come. The economy, indeed the whole of society, had been strained and dislocated in the course of the war, and it was inevitable that there should be a questioning of all sorts of existing arrangements, and an urge for change and reorganisation. Thus the Police Act of 1946 opened the way to a series of post-war amalgamations of police forces. In consequence the wartime merger of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Winchester forces was made permanent in 1947. The new formation was named at first the Hampshire Constabulary, and later was given the title of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.

    An important post-war development in the Hampshire Constabulary was the establishment of a Traffic and Communications Department at Headquarters. This was made necessary by the growing weight and complexity of motor traffic. Twentieth-century society is highly mobile and mechanical, and the police service has had to adapt its methods and equipment accordingly.

    After the war such boy clerks, who had first been appointed early in 1939, were to be replaced by police cadets. At first the cadets had no proper uniform, and worked a forty-eight hour week. There was no organised training for them, as such, and if they attended appropriate evening classes they did so in their own time at their own expense.

    The vehicle establishment increased steadily, and in doing so kept pace with the ever-growing volume of traffic throughout the county. At the end of 1957, the force possessed a total of 105 vehicles, consisting of thirty-one patrol cars, thirty section vehicles, ten C.I.D. vehicles, eleven vans and twenty-three motor-cycles, By December 1960 the total was 134, by December 1963 it had leaped to 177, and by 1965 it was 254, consisting of thirty-three patrol cars, sixty-six section vehicles, thirty-seven C.I.D. cars, twenty-four vans and ninety-four motor-cycles. On the eve of amalgamation the total vehicle strength was 281, and this figure included thirty-thee patrol cars and forty-four motor-cycles belonging to the Traffic Division; in addition the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Con­stabulary disposed of sixty-six section vehicles for general purposes, twenty-six goods vehicles, among which were some earmarked for specialist activities, thirty-eight C.I.D. vehicles, mostly Minis, fifty-three light motor­cycles and twenty-one scooters. The force had come a long way from the superintendent’s horse and cart.

    On June 16th, 1949, the Secretary of State authorised an increase of two sergeants and five constables in the strength of the force, bringing the total establishment to 849. In 1952 the strength of the force was to increase still further to 864. The additional numbers were to allow for staff in the wireless control room, for more traffic patrol personnel, and for more men in the Havant area. Because of the pace of development a further fifty-two officers were authorised in March 1954, giving an establishment of 916. Again, small additions were approved in 1957, 1958 and 1959 bringing the total to 927. In February 1960, Home Office approval was given to a substantial increase to bring the establishment to a total of 1,002. The reason for this was clearly expressed by the chief con­stable, Mr. Osmond, in his report to the police authority in July 1963 on “The Establishment and Organisation of the Force”. He stated “This increase was designed to cope to some extent with the increased population of the county and also with the reduced working week which had been introduced in 1955.

    The total strength of the force in 1963 was 1,091, consisting of one chief constable, one assistant chief constable, four chief superintendents, seven superintendents, fifteen chief inspectors, forty-eight inspectors, 126 sergeants and 857 constables; and also of one woman police inspector, three women police sergeants and twenty-eight women constables. In addition there was one chief inspector surplus to establishment for traffic duties in order to relieve the traffic superintendent for part-time Civil Defence duties.

    An important change in organisation already realised in 1963 was the centralisation of all emergency calls so that all of them were received in the information room at headquarters. This worked very well, but inevit­ably imposed a great burden on the information room staff who had to handle as many as 15,000 messages that year. The Traffic Division con­tinued to be mainly responsible for dealing with emergency calls, but to supplement its resources each division maintained one of the divisional cars equipped with radio on constant patrol. This development too required increased manpower and more vehicles. In each divisional station a radio sub-control was instituted which enabled the divisional head­quarters to communicate directly with its own vehicles, including the vehicle being used for emergency purposes. Thus pressure on the infor­mation room was relieved.

    On June 1st, 1966, the new headquarters building of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary was officially opened by Her Royal High­ness the Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Plans for this magnificent construction had been laid several years earlier, but only in 1961 did they receive the approval of both the County Council and Winchester City Council. Now the buildings have at last replaced the old headquarters at West Hill. The latter had been erected in 1847 at a cost of £10,000, and the prison which was built two years later had cost £74,000, although certainly £12,000 had been realised from the sale of the old gaols.

    The police centre of the Isle of Wight has always been at the capital. Newport, whether the island force was part of the Hampshire Constabu­lary, or on its own. In May 1838 the Police Committee decided that the then Watch House was to be converted into a lock-up room for men, and a butcher’s shop opposite into a lock-up room for women; also that the present town clerk’s office was to be the room for the inspector of police.

    The first mention of a police station for the Hampshire Constabu­lary on the Isle of Wight is found in a post office directory of 1852, which states that a building in Holyrood Street, Newport, had been converted from its previous use as a gaol into a station for the county police. In the same directory mention is made of the Newport Borough Police Station, which was also situated in Holyrood Street, and no doubt this too was a building with a past, having been a bridewell before it was acquired in 1848 for police purposes. In 1869 a house in Quay Street was bought for use as a borough police station, and completely rebuilt, with cells, at a cost of £650. This remained in use as the town police station until 1943, when the Isle of Wight force was once more merged with the Hampshire Constabulary. It is now used as a probation office. The succeeding divisional police headquarters in Fairlee Road was built in the eighties. From 1890 to 1943 it served as the office of the Chief Constable of the Isle of Wight, and since 1943 as the Isle of Wight Divisional Headquarters. At the end of 1963 a new divisional headquarters building was completed.

    On April 1st, 1967, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary was to end its separate existence, on amalgamation with the forces of Portsmouth and Southampton. The roots of English police are indeed local. Now the size and nature of the locality may be changing, and the claims of a wider loyalty becoming imperative. But the need for an intimate understanding of its own territory on the part of the force con­cerned, and for co-operation between police and public, remains as vital as ever. Only thus can the Queen’s Peace be maintained. In the ceaseless struggle to uphold and strengthen the rule of law in England, the Hampshire Constabulary has played a long, a proud, and an historic part.

 Extracts taken from a book compiled by Ian A. Watt, first published in 1966, entitled, 

“A History of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary 1839 – 1966”

Reprinted by Phillimore in 2006 for the 

Hampshire Constabulary History Society 

http://www.hants.gov.uk/hchs/

Portsmouth history here 

Copyright © Hampshire Constabulary History Society 2001