London, Chatham and Dover Railway Police

A fascinating insight into the way our forebears were engaged has come from the a new article on The Dover Historian website.

The article, by Lorraine Sencicle, is one in a series documenting how the English ‘packet’ service out of Dover, that is ships carrying official messages and mail, evolved over the centuries. This article concentrates on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company’s venture between 1860 and 1874. It is entitled Packet Service V LCDR & the Route to Dover’s Prosperity.

Of particular interest to the BTPHG is the use of the railway company’s police on the ships, and the fight against the rise in crime affecting their passengers. It also documents a joint operation between the LCDR police, the South Eastern Railway Police, Dover Borough Police and the Metropolitan Police.

The Dover Historian website is a treasure trove for the history enthusiast, there is information on Dover, the port and the railways that served it.

 

? Webmaster’s Tip:
The article is a long one, so although it is worth reading in full, you can use your browser to do a word search for ‘police’ to get to the most relevant parts.

HistoryBank

You may have noticed a bit of rebranding on the site.

We’ve renamed Storybank as Historybank. It’s just a bit more descriptive, as it doesn’t just contain ‘stories’, but factual topics such as court reports and research articles.

The contents are as before, but with a better name!

HistoryBank can be found in the PAGES menu, to the right of the screen.

StoryBank Launched: the true story of the RDC Police

BTPHG has launched a web page called StoryBank where many articles from our rich history can be found. These include extracts from History Lines our regular Group newsletter and some fascinating Trial Reports from the Old Bailey. Also, we have introduced StoryBank itself, a section where you will find articles submitted by members covering a wide range of topics.

Please think about about sending one in yourself. They can be serious, case histories, amusing incidents, charitable or biographical. They need to true of course and connected to our ‘job’ in some way. And they can’t be too ‘political’ or slanderous. In this way we hope to build up a rich store of articles that tell the real history of the RDC Police (Railway, Dock and Canal.) And they don’t have to be the finished article – just send in a few notes if you want and we’ll do the rest.

What better way can there be to portray our history? Please send your story to StoryBank@btphg.org.uk  

Website Update: November

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We have made quite a few additions to the website in recent weeks.

In addition to our ‘Short Papers’ articles in the Police History section, we now have ‘Proceedings of the Old Bailey’ a series of historic transcripts from trials at the Central Criminal Court which have a connection to our subject. Additional transcripts will be added regularly over the next few months.

We have also begun posting extracts from our regular Newsletter – History Lines – and again, these will be added to on a regular basis.

Perhaps most fittingly, in early November, we have our second Roll of Honour. This time dedicated to Officers from the various Railway Police Forces who died serving their country in The Great War. This has been compiled by Committee Member and long time force historian Kevin Gordon and we are very grateful for his efforts.

Lastly there have been a couple of additions to the Photo Gallery.