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Peterborough
Liberty and City Police 1856-1974 Today, the Liberty of Peterborough, containing the City of Peterborough forms part of Cambridgeshire. This is a direct consequence of arbitrary political boundaries under the local Government Act of 1972, which completely ignore the fact that, historically, the Liberty of Peterborough has far more connections with Northamptonshire than Cambridgeshire. The Liberty of Peterborough Police consisted of 1 District and 2 Divisions, The City and The Rural. The Divisions where split in to 10 sub Divisions each of which was was named after its Police Station. The Magistrates of the Liberty of Peterborough had not taken the opportunity to form a ‘new police’ force under the ‘permissive’ 1839 Act; and nor had they up to 1856. Consequently, in 1856, they were forced, by the County and Borough Police Act of that year, to form a police force. On Tuesday 10 March 1857, therefore, the Liberty of Peterborough Police were formed, and consisted of one Chief Constable, three Sergeants and 16 Constables. The Chief Constable chosen for the new force was Henry Bayley, who at the time was Chief Constable of Northamptonshire. This holding of the office of Chief Constable of Northamptonshire together with Chief Constable of the Liberty of Peterborough in plurality, continued until the retirement of James Kellie-MacCallum in 1931. In that year, as one plurality ended, so another began, when Thomas Danby, then the Chief Constable of the City of Peterborough Police, was appointed Chief Constable of the Liberty; the two forces still being separate and autonomous. Thomas Danby retired in 1943 and Francis George Markin was appointed as Chief Constable of both the City and the Liberty; and still the two forces were independent of each other. This anomaly had to finish, of course, and in 1947, the Home Secretary under the powers of the police Act 1946, issued a notice for the compulsory amalgamation of the two forces. The resultant force was named the Peterborough Combined Constabulary, under its one Chief Constable, Mr Markin. This amalgamation was a little unconventional in that the City Force was larger than its surrounding ‘county’ force, instead of the more usual vice-versa. Continuing until 1965, the Peterborough Combined Constabulary was then amalgamated with Cambridge City Police, Cambridgeshire County Constabulary, Huntingdonshire County Constabulary and the Isle of Ely Constabulary to form the Mid Anglia Constabulary. This in its turn, under the local Government Act, which came into force in 1974, changed its name to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, which continues to this day. Peterborough did not receive its Charter of Incorporation until 1874, and so officially was not a ‘borough’ under the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act, and so was not entitled to form its own ‘new police’ force. But as soon as the Charter was granted, a Watch Committee was formed. Being chosen as the first Chief Constable of the City, James Hurst had already seen service in Northamptonshire County Constabulary and Liberty of Peterborough Police. He had joined the Northamptonshire force on Tuesday 1 May 1860 and had been stationed at Thrapston. He was promoted Sergeant in 1863 and went to Wellingborough, but returned to Thrapston as Divisional Inspector on Sunday 12th November 1865. In December 1871, he transferred to the Liberty as Superintended (in effect, the deputy Chief Constable) and from there went straight to the City as Chief Constable in 1874. James Hurst retired in 1889, being replaced by John William Lawson, who remained as Chief Constable for 20 years. John Edward Ker Watson was appointed in 1909 and was to be the shortest serving of the City Chief Constables, resigning in 1915. Thomas Danby was appointed in 1915 during the Great War and remained until the Second World War, when he handed over to Francis George Markin in 1943, who was to see his City amalgamated with the Liberty four years later. To celebrate 100 years of Policing the City and the Liberty, a booklet was published in 1957 entitled ‘ Commemorating 100 years of Service of Peterborough Police 1857-1957’ from which the facts for this information were taken. Below are PDF files of the books that I have
on Peterborough Police just click on the books
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