2011 moves on and so does BTPHG, albeit not quite so quickly. Where does the time go?
Our second AGM was held in April, chaired in style by Glyn Thomas, not bad for an up and coming youngster. And we have a committee meeting due in a couple of weeks.
The Group’s first Year Book was launched at the AGM and you should by now have received your copy. If not, use the Contact page to let me know.
The Police Service Record (PSR) project has also been launched and we look forward to receiving yours. Have a look at the PSR page to do it on line. In fact, have a browse around the site, there’s more new stuff on there including a new ‘Police History, Short Papers’ page with some good articles to read and there will be more to come.
Steve Beamon, who is managing the research of census returns project has turned up a huge amount of stuff.
All in all, not a bad half year!! Have a good summer.
2011 Update Stuff
The 2011 AGM is almost upon us – Tuesday 29th March at 1130 at Eddy’s Club, Birmingham. Sadly though, (or gleefully?) the Chairman is stuck in the shaky city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Membership Secretary, Glyn Thomas will be taking the chair. The first edition of the BTPHG Year Book will be distributed at the AGM with the remainder being posted out soon afterwards.
Other progress includes work being done on identifying railway and dock police officers from census records and the almost complete Police Service Record forms. Life-saving and other meritorious awards have now been added to the Honours, Decorations & Medals page on the web site.
Several people have volunteered to do some transcribing following my plea in the Retired Lines newsletter- good news all round.
This logo appears on the front cover of the Year Book and is based on a wall sculpture in the tiny town of Hokitika on the west coast of the South Island New Zealand. I’m sure the artist would be pleased to see it put to such good use. VH
BTPHG Projects page
We have now have revamped the Projects webpage to identify the Project Manager for each Project.
This will enable people interested in a specific project to make contact directly.
UPDATE: February 2011
Just added new ‘Lifesaving and other Awards’ page. First table relates to Royal Humane Society Awards.
Photo Project
I am pleased to report that the first meeting of the Digital Archive Photo Project (DAPP) took place in October. We have the use of an office in London to work from and the Group has funded the purchase of a computer and scanner. Having made a brief assessment of the volume and different formats of the potential library of photos it is a bit of a daunting task – it’s not a short-term project that’s for sure. But the hardest part of a long journey is the first step and we have taken that. We are a team of six at the moment but there is room for more and if any member would like to think about joining us, please Contact us.
Policing the Docks
In the last blog, about the Maritime Blue photo exhibition in June 2010, I referred to the fact that BTP were policing 24 ports nationwide at the time of withdrawal in 1985. Someone asked – where were they? A very good question, to which we have not yet properly got the complete answer. But it started a chain of thought about how many docks or ports had previously been policed by BTP or constituent forces? Well that has been doing the rounds and so far we are up to fifty-six different ports and docks!!! Surprising isn’t it?
The list appears in the history pages on this site and if you can add any further information, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Maritime Blue Photo Exhibition
2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of the BTP policing service from 24 ports nationwide which the force previously policed for anything up to 130 years. (A dedicated police service was in place at Cardiff Docks between 1858 and 1985.) To celebrate this event, a fascinating exhibition was held at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre in Cardiff throughout June, with more than fifty black and white photographs displayed.
There were very many visitors from all over the world and the photographs certainly created a great deal of interest. Many thanks to the organisations, including the British Transport Police Force, and individuals who supported this project.