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HistoryA Brief History of the Surrey Constabulary: Since the original launch of this site a huge amount of research material has been deposited in the Police Archive at the Open University by Bob Bartlett. This is continually being added to so if you wish an extremely full account of the history of the Surrey Constabulary click on this link which will take you to the OU website. With the start of World War I many police officerswere called to the colours. Their departure left the Force dealing with additional duties but without the training to prepare for such difficult times. To help secure the county, 4,000 special constables were recruited to keep order in towns and villages and help secure refugee routes. The chief constable’s report for 1915 mentioned two particular duties that had taken a great deal of time and trouble – the billeting of troops and enquiries concerning aliens. Around 150,000 billets were found and 250 aliens checked and registered. 1918 was also the year when Captain Sant chose the Lion Passant as the Force crest. Until then, superintendents were continually being mistaken for prison warders, as both wore the Crown on their headdress. After being continually addressed as a prison officer by a hostile barrister during a trial, a superintendent went straight to the chief constable to suggest it was time a new cap badge was devised. The chief constable agreed and a new Force crest was developed, based on Surrey County Council’s three lions. In 1921 Deputy Chief Constable H J Page retired, having joined the force in 1871!In 18 December 1930, after 31 years of service, Captain Sant retired with the remarkable record for Surrey of having just two chief constables from inception in 1851 until 1930. One of the chief constables last acts was to form the Old Comrades Association an organization that was to outlive the Surrey Constabulary.On 19 December 1930, Major Geoffrey Nicholson took up his appointment as Chief Constable. The former assistant chief constable of Hampshire, he was 35. He started by ordering that every complaint of an indictable crime was to be reported directly to him and he read every report without exception! His analysis revealed that criminals living in London committed a great deal of the ‘housebreaking’ in the county. It was obvious enquiries were necessary in the capital and he employed five sergeants to carry out the work. They soon became known as detective sergeants and the nucleus of Surrey’s CID was formed. There was also an increase in the Force’s use of motor vehicles during 1930. As a result of the Road Traffic Act, which allowed the Ministry of Transport to subsidise patrol vehicles, five cars and 11 motorcycles were bought and Surrey had its first motorcyclist, PC John Baker. Five Austin 7s were also purchased for use by the detective sergeants. In 1932 the Crime Bureau was established. Its purpose was to study and collect information relating to crime, provide scientific aids to detection and improve the use of photography. After basic training, fingerprinting started and the Fingerprint Department was formed.One of Major Nicholson’s main concerns was the conditions that his men were living in. During 1934 the first police houses were purchased and by 1937 a total of 200 houses had been secured at a cost of £150,000. Policing the Victorian Countryside1851-19011881: Murder of Frederick Gold in the Balcome Tunnel: Surrey Constabulary 'For those who served' 1851 - 1992 Editor: Robert Bartlett. Website Design & Maintenance: Denis Turner. This website was created using MAGIX Website Maker You will need the current version of Adobe Flash Player to view it. Further information can be found at magix.info - the Multimedia Knowledge Community by MAGIX, the market leader for music, photo, and video software. |