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New Year Honours List 2023

It was announced today (31/12/2022) that former Chair of the BTP Federation Nigel GOODBAND M.B.E. and Det Sgt Brian POWER K.P.M.  have received recognition in the New Year Honours List 2023.

Congratulations to them both.

The Awards table has been updated.

Nigel Goodband

Nigel Goodband, known as ‘Nobby’, joined BTP in 1991, after eight years with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards.

During his time with BTP, Nigel embarked on a career of disrupting serious and organised crime across the rail network, working across CID and the National Intelligence arena. He received a commendation from the coroner for his work on the Grayrigg train crash and led the first ever court contested murder investigation for BTP.

Alongside his operational accomplishments, Nigel also worked tirelessly to represent BTP officers as an elected representative of the BTP Federation. In 2016, he was named national chair of the BTP Federation and became the face of the organisation internally, externally, nationally and internationally.

Nigel stepped down as chair earlier this year.

On receiving this honour, Nigel said:

“Policing for me has genuinely been a job like no other and I have worked with some of the very best officers and staff that a police service can offer. I suspect without their dedication to duty, support, and courage my efforts would not have been recognised in this fashion. So, I am extremely grateful to all those officers and staff members that I worked with over the years, and I would like to say a very big thank you to them all.

“I would also like to thank whoever nominated me for the MBE, I cannot put into words what this honour means to me and my family. I am so proud of my time served in both the British Army and in British Transport Police and to receive this honour from HM King Charles III is unquestionably the highlight of my career.”

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi said: “Nobby served a trailblazing career with BTP, which included investigating the force’s first ever court-contested murder case and establishing a model for investigating major incidents alongside our partners. Alongside those incredible achievements, he worked tirelessly to represent BTP officers through the BTP Federation and was elected national chair in 2016. Nobby dedicated his working life to serving and helping others, bringing about change and supporting everyone who needed assistance, advice or support. He should be very proud of this honour and we are very proud of him.”

Brian Power

Det Sgt Brian Power joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1979, serving in both uniform and CID.

It was during the latter that he became involved in family liaison work – offering families emotional support and care during the most difficult situations a family can face. Since then, he has been the co-ordinator for teams of family liaison officers for incidents such as the 2004 Tsunami tragedy, 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings.

Since joining BTP in 2009, he has overseen the training of more than 250 liaison officers and co-ordinators, as well as seeing more than 500 officers trained to become detectives. Brian was also the coordinator for all 14 liaison officers for the Croydon tram derailment in 2016.

He is now training officers from forces across the UK in providing bereavement support.

In his own time, he has run seven marathons for charity, runs a local youth club and has been an athletics coach for 20 years.

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi said: “Brian has been a pioneer in the incredibly difficult and emotive work of family liaison. It is because of his work that many families have been helped and supported through the darkest of times – and that so many others have been trained to carry out this vital role.

“Brian has shown unwavering dedication to the public for more than 40 years. His work in this area epitomises everything that is great about British policing and this honour is very much deserved.”

On hearing news of the honour, Brian said:

“It’s an absolute honour to have received the medal. I’ve been working for the police for 44 years and I still love my job. It’s a privilege to train those officers – from forces across the UK – who will be supporting families when they most need us.”

 

Source: BTP

See: Honours, Medals and Decorations table

Season’s Greeting

🎄With the especially cold December we’ve had so far, I thought you would appreciate a return to our roaring log fire this year.

🎄For the last couple of years I hoped for a better new year than the last,  but another challenging winter is upon us, nevertheless a seasonal greeting from all of us at the BTPHG.

🎄And let’s look forward to a much happier New Year (again)!

New Book: Railway Crimes Committed in Victorian Britain

BTPHG member Malcolm Clegg has his second BTP related book published within a few months and takes another place on the virtual BookShelf.

This time he is looking at crimes in the Victorian era.

The book, published in hardback by Pen & Sword, contains 160 pages and will be released on 30th January 2023. It will be available from Amazon, other online retailers, most book shops or direct from the publishers, and is available to pre-order now.

Book cover: ‘Railway crimes committed in Victorian Britain.

From the publisher’s description:

The vast majority of Britain’s railways were built between 1830 and 1900 which happened to coincide with the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). By the turn of the Nineteenth/Twentieth Century, over one hundred different railway companies were operating in Britain on more than 22,000 miles of railway track.

Although these new railways brought prosperity to the nation and enabled goods and passengers to be speedily transported the length and breadth of the country for the first time, this remarkable feat of engineering brought with it some unwelcome side-effects, one of which was crime. Wherever crowds of people gather, or unattended goods are being transported, a few unscrupulous individuals and career criminals will usually emerge to ply their trade. Some railway staff members are also unable to resist the temptation of stealing money or goods passing through their hands.

This book gives an insight into the nature and types of crime committed on the railways during the Victorian era, incorporating such offences as theft, assaults and murder, fraud, obstructing the railways and various other infringements of the law.

Over seventy different cases mentioned in the book are true accounts of events which took place on the railway during the Victorian era, the details of which were obtained as a result of hours of researching British Newspaper Archives of that period. The author hopes that readers will get as much pleasure from analysing the various cases cited in the book, as he himself derived from researching and writing about them.

Update: January 2023
Malcolm advises: Just to keep you updated. The book was released on Wednesday (11th January 2023) and my copies arrived on Thursday.
Hardback copies are now available from the publisher, Pen & Sword, priced at £18.00 (RRP £20) each.

Also see:
British Transport Police – A definitive history of the early years and subsequent development

Website changes

Under Construction

You may have noticed a bit of a change on the website today. This is because the WordPress Theme ‘Atahuapa’ that we have been using since this website’s inception (12+ years) has become outdated. It does not work with the latest WordPress or web standards. Unfortunately the theme developer no longer supports it. So, it is time for a change.

We are very much in a trial and error phase, so somethings will be broken or look different.  Within the next few days and weeks to come there will be a finalised version, which should see us through the next few years.

One big plus is that the whatever new theme we settle on it will be mobile phone and tablet friendly, something that older themes were not.

So please bear with us while we get things sorted.

Colin Sinclair (1948 – 2022)

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of Colin Sinclair. He died peacefully on the evening of Thursday 17th November 2022.

Colin was a founder member and former Committee Member of the BTP History Group, joining in 2009, and elected to the committee at the March 2012 Annual General Meeting. Eventually ill health forced him to leave the committee, but he remained a valued member of the Research Group. It was as part of these researches that Colin set out to record the history and current whereabouts of both the Whitbread Shield and the Keith Winter Cup (Project page).

Colin was also an active member of Facebook, and made many history related posts. One of his last entries was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his joining the BTP (see below).

He was also a former committee member of the National Association of Retired British Transport Police Officers, and was for many years the editor of their newsletter – Retired Lines.

Colin joined the BTP at Victoria in November 1972, and subsequently served at East Croydon, Bricklayers Arms and London Bridge, before transferring to the LT as a Temporary Detective Constable in July 1977. His stay at Baker Street was a short one, however, as promotion to Uniform Sergeant at Liverpool Street came in March 1978.

Keith Winter Cup

He moved north to Leeds in March 1980. A change from uniform beckoned in 1986, when he became the Divisional Crime Prevention Officer at Leeds DHQ. He then became the Area CPO at York AHQ from 1992 until retirement in June 1996.

Colin won the PMAS Book Prize during his recruit course at Dishforth PTC, and was also awarded the above mentioned Keith Winter Cup for the highest aggregate exam marks during probation training.

Colin’s recent post on the Retired Lives (BTP related) Facebook group:

“50 years ago today, a rather nervous me reported to the BTP office in Hudsons Place, at London Victoria.
Over the next week, I was sent to Glasgow to be fitted for a uniform (this involved getting the Glasgow sleeper from Euston, collecting my uniform, killing time in Glasgow until I caught the sleeper back to London).
Back at Vic, I was told to go home and spend the day fitting my divisional numbers (162S) to my tunic, gaberdine mac etc. 
On Friday I was taken to Bow Street Mags Crt to be sworn in. That afternoon I donned my uniform for the first time – but only to walk across the station to find a Photo-Me booth and get a photo for my warrant card.
And that was it: I was now a police officer- like my dad (Ramsgate Boro/Kent County) and grandfather (East Sussex) before me!”

RIP Colin.

Warrant Card

 

York, 2014.

Website Updates!

A busy few months for new content on the website, so time for our occasional reminder that in the ‘Pages’ column to the right of the screen we have a link called ‘Website Updates’.
Unsurprisingly this links to the Website Updates page. If you are a regular visitor to the site it’s a handy page to look at to see what new articles and items of interest have been added to the website recently.

Of course smaller items, such as photographs in the Photo Gallery, are being added all the time – so it’s still worth having a look around the site to see what you might find!

Remembrance

BTP Poppy Badge

 

November is the season of remembrance and across the country fund raising efforts are taking place to support the work of the Royal British Legion (RBL).  The work of the RBL is, as we enter another period of economic difficulty, as important as ever.

This time of year is an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice of our forebears who gave their lives in war, fighting with the colours or in the execution of their duties on the Home Front.  At least 162 officers or former officers were killed in the two World Wars.  Their names are included in memorials across the railway network and in the places they fell beyond the seas.  A plaque marking the sacrifice of these officers in the Great War was erected in 2009 in Ypres and BTPHG maintain, research and update a Roll of Honour.

BTP officers are part of the police contingent on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph and officers of the constituent forces have marked the armistice since the arrival of the Unknown Warrior at Victoria Station in 1920.

BTP and its predecessor forces has always welcomed ex-service personnel, many of whom served in the conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries.  We are grateful for the contribution of all who have worked to protect our country from its enemies.

BTPHG will continue to ensure that the names of the those who made the ultimate sacrifice are not forgotten.  We will remember them.

 

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrows these gave their today.
(Edmonds, 1919)

 

Phil Trendall, Chair

 

Policewomen in Scotland, 1920.

Photo of policewoman at Glasgow Central railway station in 1920.BTPHG member Mike Joyce found this interesting piece in the Edinburgh Evening news from Saturday 14th August 1920.

The accompanying text reads:

“POLICEWOMEN AT RAILWAY STATIONS.
The Caledonian Company is the first in Great Britain to employ policewomen in railway service, and our photograph is of one at the Central Station, Glasgow. Ladies travelling on the railways know how objectionable it is to have rub shoulders with undesirable characters who may have escaped the observation of the male staff on the platforms and who loiter and the waiting rooms with no intention travelling by the train services, although they provide themselves with tickets give them a footing in the waiting rooms, and the difficulty eradicating this element is one which has been receiving the attention of the railway authorities. The Caledonian Company have instituted a staff of women police and secured the services a number of women who have been trained for the Women’s National Police Service and who have had practical experience among women in munition and military centres, and who are, therefore, specially suited for this work. These women police will be able to identify and clear out any objectionable female characters who may make use of the waiting rooms the stations however well they may be attired to give them the air of respectability.”

We know, of course, that these were not the first policewomen on the railways in Great Britain, many having served in WWI (see Police Women on the Railways).

However, this may be the first recorded instance of a railway company recruiting females during peacetime. Also interesting that they were using officers who had experience working during the war.

See other examples of early policewomen in our Photo Gallery.