The Making of a Police Officer Pt 1.
by Roy Ingleton
Recruitment

The early policemen were met with a very mixed reception. Although parish constables and watchmen had been in existence for many years, the concept of a professional, paid police force was not always welcomed. The wealthy, land-owning gentry already had their own private 'police' consisting of gamekeepers, stewards, bailiffs and other servants and they did not see why they should pay for a force to look after other people. The lower social orders, too, quickly realised that they would be the centre of attention for such a police force, especially as most of the criminals came from their peers. Only the newly burgeoning commercial and industrial sector generally welcomed the idea. They were suffering from thefts of their goods, industrial unrest and malicious damage and quickly saw that a paid, professional police force would be better than some lackadaisical parish constable.

Given this widespread opposition to a professional police force, what sort of man was going to offer his services? Many chief constables looked to the agricultural labourer to fill the ranks of his force. They were strong and comparatively healthy and many were looking for a more secure life than could be found on the farms, where they could be hired and fired on a whim. But the precarious economic and employment situation encouraged many from other trades and callings to apply - boot makers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, ostlers and grooms were all represented. But labourers of one kind or another made up a large proportion of the recruits to both town and county forces. Young, single men were generally preferred and some forces expressly excluded married applicants. Others, like Deal, found married men much more reliable and faithful.

The chairman of one watch committee stated, it was 'simply a question of wages' but this view was perhaps overly simplistic. There were a variety of factors which encouraged young men to apply; stability of employment, regularity of pay and various fringe benefits. There was also the fact that a trained policeman was often sought after by other employers and gave impoverished agricultural workers the chance to move into the town where better opportunities awaited. Later on there was also the attraction of a pension.

Therefore, despite public opposition to the police in many quarters, there was no great difficulty in attracting recruits. Retaining them was, however, quite a different matter. Of the 3,400 men who joined the Metropolitan Police around the time it was first formed only a quarter remained in post four years later . This trend was reflected in most of the early police forces. It was one thing to apply for a post and be accepted but the realities of police life were not always appreciated. The demands of the job, both physical and mental, were considerable. The discipline was high - unacceptably so for many - and even one's private life was strictly controlled and monitored.

The early borough forces in Kent tended to employ local men, many of whom, given the agricultural nature of the county, were likely to be farm labourers or brewery workers. The officers in charge, by whatever title they were known (usually Superintendent) were often recruited from the Metropolitan or City of London forces. An advertisement in 1858 for two sergeants and three constables in Canterbury required applicants to be (a) able to read and write, (b) aged between 25 and 30, and (c) at least 5'7" in height. The pay offered was 23/- and 18/- respectively plus clothing and an additional 1/6 per week 'on account of the high price of provisions'. These requirements were stricter than hitherto because of pressure from Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary. The minimum height was increased to 5'9" in 1882.

Being a garrison town of some importance it is somewhat surprising that the original members of the City force did not include a single ex-soldier. Military historians will no doubt be able to associate this fact with conditions in the army at the time, and also account for the fact that in 1860, and again in 1884, a number of military men joined the force.

When the Kent County Constabulary was formed in 1857, the Chief Constable was authorised to appoint 222 officers and men. His first and most important task was therefore to select and appoint suitable men to fill the posts in this new force, a job he had to complete virtually unaided. The question of the Superintendents to be in charge of the divisions of the new force was simple to resolve: the existing Superintending Constables under the old Parish Constable system were simply appointed in charge of the new police divisions.

For the sergeants and constables certain standards were laid down: the physical and educational standards required were quite strict, candidates having to be at least 5 feet 9 inches in height and under 40 years of age. (Special dispensation was obtained in February 1860 for the enrolment of one James Hoare Steer who, at 45 and only 5 feet 5 inches did not meet these standards but who was required to act as Clerk to the force). In 1868 the upper age limit was reduced to 35 years of age. Candidates had to be literate and were unacceptable if they were gentlemen, gentlemen's servants or had been employed as a gamekeeper, wood ranger, bailiff or had any connection with the sale of alcoholic beverages.

As an indication of the strictness of the physical attributes imposed, one candidate was sent away in 1887 as being too short and fat and 'would take up the space of two men in the ranks'. The next year another applicant was sent away as being so tall and thin as would make a good hop pole and was recommended a diet of beef and porter. A letter from the Chief Constable in 1863 to a Mr. Trafalgar Brattle of Chatham Dockyard referred to the latter's application on his brother's behalf for a position in the new force and stated -

• '… the trade followed by your brother of a higgler is not a very good introduction to a police force [and he] … would need certificates of spotless character from the Superintendents of the Divisions in which he carried on this traffic'.

On the other hand, the force recruited a number of outstanding men, including one Albert Mitchell who was 32 when he joined the force in 1862 after service in the Army. A veteran of the Crimea War, his book, Recollections of one of the Light Brigade, published in 1884, is widely held to be one of the best accounts of this conflict.

Towards the end of the 19th century recruiting was experiencing an unusual boom and, by February 1897 the Kent County Constabulary had a waiting list of 50 candidates and no more application forms were issued. This problem was tackled later that year by issuing a new set of qualifications of candidates, which presumable weeded out some of the less suitable applicants on the waiting list. These qualifications included:

Age limit 20 to 27 years of age
5 feet 9 inches without shoes
36-inch chest
Able to read well, write legibly and have a fair knowledge of spelling.
Healthy and 'careful as to personal cleanliness'.

All applicants had to undergo a medical examination and the main causes of rejection were ruptures, flat feet, varicose veins, tumours, skin disease, stiffness of joints, cough, narrow chest, weak sight and facial deformities. In 1906 it was decreed that, in future, no married man would be entertained as an applicant for the Kent County Constabulary unless he was specially recommended. The dire economic situation in the early 1920s led to the Home Office placing an embargo on any recruitment for the time being but this was gradually eased.

One reason for men applying to join the force was the disappearance of their craft or trade. Bud Friar who joined the Gravesend Borough force in 1925 did so because, even though the War Department was still pulling its field guns and carriages around with teams of six horses, he could see that his trade as a wheelwright was becoming redundant. The man he replaced, who already had three years service by the time Bud was born, was previously a sail maker so possibly the same circumstances had prompted his change of career.

For many years, the physical attributes of recruits were more prized than intellectual ability and even up to and beyond the middle of the 20th century, height, chest measurement and eyesight were important criteria. Ex-sergeant Ron Cockram recalls that when he first applied to join the Kent County Constabulary in 1938 he was turned down because he could not meet the requirement to expand his chest measurement from 36 inches to 38 inches. However, with the Second World War imminent, there was some relaxation and he was accepted in March 1939.

The years following the Second World War saw a great boom in recruiting. Men who had left the force to serve in the Armed Forces were beginning to return and other ex-servicemen were looking for a job with security, good pay and a pension. The main obstacle to recruiting was the dearth of housing and the Kent force embarked on a very ambitious programme of house building to overcome this.

By the time the first 100 years of the existence of the Kent County Constabulary had passed, the emphasis was shifting from the barely-literate, strong-armed farm labourer to a more cerebral type of recruit. That is not to say that every applicant for the force needed to have a PhD but a reasonable standard of intelligence and education was expected. With the opening up of the universities to a wider range of student, the service was beginning to look for a percentage of graduate recruits and was willing to provide university courses for suitable serving officers.

By the 1960s the force had a good nucleus of well-educated, physically fit men with an average age of 36 and an average height of 5 feet 10½ inches but the post-war recruiting boom came to an end in 1968 when the national economic situation caused the Home Office to place a ban on recruiting. Once again, as so often in the past, the police service had to tighten its belt and try to provide an adequate service with the minimum of facilities and resources. This policy was relaxed somewhat the following year but financial restrictions were to play a major role in police recruiting for the rest of the 20th century.

Next pasttimes article in this series is "Women Police" an will be added to the site early August.