Anniversary of the founding of London's Metropolitan Police

This week's blog celebrates police ancestors with today (29 September 2017) being the 188th anniversary of the founding of London's Metropolitan Police

On 29 September 1829, 188 years ago to the day, the Metropolitan Police of London (later also known as the Met) was founded. Although this was first professional police force in England, there had been local constables throughout the 18th century. From the 1730s, some towns and cities paid for watchmen or constables to patrol the streets at night. In 1749, Henry Fielding set up the Bow Street Runners and in 1763, his brother, Sir John Fielding brought in the Bow Street Horse Patrol.

A Peeler circa 1850s (c)

Unknown - http://www.victorianstrollers.co.uk/stevesuniforms/peeler/peeler1.jpg

Outside of London, the first professional police force in Britain, the City of Glasgow Police, was established in 1800. Railway police began in 1830 with the creation of Liverpool and Manchester Railway's own force. But London's law and order remained chaotic with only 450 constables and 4,500 night watchmen to keep the peace.

Famously, the then Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act 1829 created the first full-time professional police force. The new Bobbies or Peelers, as they became known after their founder, covered a 7-mile radius area outside of the City of London. The City gained its own police force in 1832, which was known as the City of London Police in 1839.

Highgate Cemetery Burial Register entry for Robert Grant VC

The Deceased Online database holds the burial and cremation records of several police officers. One of the most remarkable is Robert Grant VC (1837-1867), a police constable, soldier and Victoria Cross recipient who lies buried in Highgate Cemetery.

The grave of Sergeant Robert Grant in London's Highgate Cemetery (c) Wikimedia Commons @stephencdickson

After a distinguished military career in which he was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Robert Grant enlisted as a constable in the Metropolitan Police, number 306. Although Grant was born in Harrogate in Yorkshire, he would live for the remainder of his life in London. He served in the northern suburbs of the capital, in the Y Division Holloway. Sadly, in 1867, when he was aged just 30, Grant's life was cut short by consumption - the scourge of the Victorian era. He had been living off the Caledonian Road, which runs between Holloway and King's Cross. He was buried not far from Holloway in Highgate Cemetery. Despite his excellent military and police service, Grant was buried in a pauper's grave with no headstone. In recent years, his work and bravery has been rediscovered and celebrated publicly. A headstone has been erected in the cemetery and a plaque dedicated to him on the War Memorial in Harrogate.

For further information on the past 188 years of the Metropolitan Police, see the Friends of the Metropolitan Police Historical Collection online at https://www.metpolicehistory.co.uk/

Do you have ancestors who served in the Metropolitan Police Force, City of Glasgow Police, City of London Police, as a railway police officer, or with any other police force across Britain? We would love to hear from you in the Comments Box below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages!

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting

Nottingham Collection

This week, Deceased Online expands its Nottingham Collection with the addition of records from the early Victorian cemetery, Nottingham General. Enter Nottingham's General Cemetery from Canning Terrace and be prepared to step back in time to the late 19th century. Like many of the Victorian cemeteries in the Deceased Online collections, Nottingham General was designed to take the burden from parish churches whose graveyards had become overcrowded. Also, like many other Victorian cemeteries, this was administered by a newly-formed body, the Nottingham General Cemetery Company (1836) . The Grade II listed gatehouse , the chapel and the adjacent almshouses were built between 1836 and 1838 by S. S. Rawlinson . Burial registers were kept from the opening date of cemetery in 1838. Concerns were raised in the 1920s that this municipal cemetery was now overcrowded and from 1929 the cemetery was closed to new burials other than those who owned burial rights. Headstones in

Churck (Rock) Cemetery, Nottingham

Coming soon to the Deceased Online database: two historic cemeteries from Nottingham City Council to add to the Nottingham Collection . This week, I explore the history of the renowned Church Cemetery (also known as the Rock Cemetery) . At first glance, the modern visitor to Nottingham's Church Cemetery may think they have wandered into Kensal Green , or another of London's Magnificent Seven cemeteries. The 13 acre site abounds with the kind of gothic stone monuments and large sarcophogi with which the mid-Victorians liked to remember their dead. Yet look harder and you will find something unique to Nottingham - sandstone caves. Since the middle ages, the area around Nottingham was quarried for its sandstone, now known by the name of a nearby village as "Bulwell sandstone". From 1851, after the cemetery was laid out on the former sandpits, local people grew to know it simply as "The Rock". Church Cemetery Otherwise known as the Rock Cemetery on a

British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

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