A national Roll of Honour is maintained by the Police Remembrance Trust and lists officers who were killed or died during the execution of their duty. You may be surprised to learn that one of the constables recorded was a Glynde man, Lawrence Alfred Haines. (Always known as Alfred) Alfred was born in Beddingham in…
Category: Police History
The Murder of Inspector Walls
On the evening of 9th October 1912, Countess Sztaray left her house at 6, South Cliffe Avenue near the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne for a dinner appointment in town. As the Countess got into her carriage, the coachman, David Potter noticed a man on the ivy-clad balcony above the front door. The Countess returned to her house and…
An Incorrigible Thief
One morning in September 1888, Mrs Mary Torry left her bedroom at the Diplocks Hotel in Eastbourne and went downstairs for breakfast. She left her bedroom door unlocked and when she returned she noticed that money and jewellery were missing from her handbag. Suspicion fell on the young, well-dressed chap in the adjacent room. He…
A Cricketing Copper
An old police friend, ex Inspector Bill Tee of the BTP from Crewe, has sent me a photo of his great-great uncle, former Sussex policeman George Berry. As I enjoy my local history, I said I would try to find out more. George was born at Woolbeeding, West Sussex on 17th January 1840. His parents were…
Brighton’s Bent Cops
I knew a bent cop once. His name was Derek Ridgewell who was a British Transport Police (BTP) Detective Sergeant. He seemed to have a haughty arrogance about him and certainly looked down on me, a mere uniform PC. Ridgewell was the head of the ‘Dip Squad’ responsible for arresting travelling pickpockets, particularly on the underground….
This isn’t a tall tale – but it is !
I joined the British Transport Police at Brighton in 1973, a month after my 16th birthday, however I was a Police Cadet. William Henry Auger was even younger than me and he joined the Police as a Constable! William was born on 27th December 1881 in Cardiff to Henry and Laurette Auger. Within a few months of…
The Lewes Riots
This story has it all – rioting, nuns, a funeral and a Christmas carol – and it’s all based in Sussex! I suppose the story starts with Edward Bouverie Pusey (1880-1882). He was a theologian who, along with John Henry Newman (later Cardinal Newman) (1801-1890), was one of the founders of the ‘Oxford Movement’. This group…
The world’s top policeman lived in Sussex and everyone knew where!
The 1950s editions of the Kelly’s Directory for Eastbourne show the occupant of 50, St John’s Road, Meads as “SILLITOE. Sir Percy K.B.E.” This is remarkable considering that Sir Percy was the head of MI5 and was a noted opponent of violent street gangs. Percy Joseph Sillitoe was born in London on 22nd May 1888 and was educated…
PC White and the Stolen Safe
I thought you may like to hear about one of the long standing characters of the Sussex Police, Charles White who served in Seaford as both constable and detective for 37 years. (and – after his retirement served a further eight years as a civilian.) Luckily he wrote a brief memoire of his service which…
A Policeman involved in a Sussex Disaster
This story starts with a sepia coloured photograph in the archives of the British Transport Police History Group titled ‘William Holman – Brighton Railway Police’. The photograph shows a bewhiskered, top-hatted man making a note in his pocket-book. But who was he? William Holman was born in Ightham, Kent in 1801. He was married to…
Quirky Sussex History by Kevin Gordon 