Police

Sgt Meppen Warburton Walter in police uniform, Calcutta 1919

Records

• Indian Police Service Records held at the British Library
• King's Police Medal India from June 11 1948- 17 Dec 1948 Confirms records held at The National Archives under ref T333/18. (See above description of British Library records for earlier awards).
• Officers awarded Police Medals were generally named in the London Gazette

FIBIS resources

Roll of Indian Police officers 1861-1947 - Superintendents & Asst Superintendents Database set containing names of 1,711 officers, who, from 1861, served as Superintendents, and from 1893 as Assistant Superintendents, and above.

Madras Presidency

Administration Reports of the Madras Police

The Administration Report of the Madras Police returned between 1866 and 1893 (IOR/V/24/3129-33) are largely statistical documents but contain the odd family history snippet. Note that the format seems to change year on year. The Superintendent of each Madras district sent a report detailing incidents worthy of comment, some being major crimes, some being internal disciplinary matters. Although names are not often given, phrases such as "the Head Constable of --- station" are used, meaning that if you have a police ancestor in Madras at this time it might be worth checking these reports. If nothing else, the reports give a flavour of the police work. The series appears to be continued from 1894-1948 (IOR/V/24/3133-37) but the content of these files cannot be commented upon.

Editions found online:

• Administration Report of the Madras Police for 1880 Archive.org
• Administration Report of the Madras Police for 1882 Archive.org
• Administration Report of the Madras Police for 1883 Archive.org

Individuals

• Charles Tegart. He joined the Calcutta Police in 1901, becoming head of its Detective Department. He served almost continuously in Calcutta for a period of thirty years until he was appointed a member of the Secretary of State's Indian Council in December 1931.
  • Charles Tegart Wikipedia
  • "An Irishman is specially suited to be a policeman" historyireland.com
  • Charles Tegart of the Indian Police: an unpublished biography by Lady Tegart is available at the British Library with European Manuscripts catalogue entry Mss Eur C235 1881-1946
    • This review, from The Hindu, of the book Travel Writing and the Empire by Sachidananda Mohanty (Editor), gives details of one of the essays "Colonialism, Surveillance and Memoirs of travel: Tegart's Diaries and the Andaman Cellular Jail", where "Tutun Mukherjee looks at the "Memoir of an Indian Policeman", a compilation made by Tegart's wife of the diaries of Charles Augustus Tegart, British loyalist and Police Commissioner. The Memoir, Mukherjee notes, records a particularly violent chapter in India's colonial history, that of extremism, British repression and brutal colonial incarceration. Travelling to the Cellular Jail in the beautiful Andaman archipelago in 1913, Tegart notes the careful architecture of the prison, recording all the many ways in which the prisoners were kept under control, his eyes ever alert for lapses in vigilance". Available through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop
• Eric Arthur Blair who was in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927 is better known as the author George Orwell. His novel Burmese Days was first published 1934 and is based on his experiences in the Burma Police. This article by Steve Martin (www.orwell.ru) gives details of Katha, the northern town where Orwell was stationed from December 1926 to June 1927, on which the fictional town of Kyauktada in Upper Burma in the novel is based. The novel may be read online: Burmese Days Gutenberg.net.au.

External links

• Deaths of Gazetted Police Officers - India and Burma Police 1888 - 1944 from www.redcoat.info, transcribed from To Guard My People:the History of the Indian Police by Sir Percival Joseph Griffiths 1971, available at the British Library
  
• Development of the Police under East India Company The Police in India By M. B. Chande 1997 (Google Books)
  
• Police Developments during 1858 to 1900 period The Police in India By M. B. Chande 1997 (Google Books)
• The Empire At Its Zenith kolkatapolice.gov.in
• Maxine Steller’s Bombay. Born in 1930, daughter of Bill Taylor who was in the Bombay Police Force, they lived in quarters behind the various police stations he was assigned to. He later became Deputy Commissioner of Police. She describes her early life, including becoming the female singer in a band, and the conditions before and after independence, until she left in 1950 for Australia. tajmahalfoxtrot.com

Historical books online

• Report on the Police of the Bombay Presidency for 1857 1859 Google Books
• From England to the Antipodes & India - 1846 to 1902, with startling revelations, or 56 years of my life in the Indian Mutiny, Police & Jails by Isaac Tyrell 1904, page 73 the author left the 43rd Regiment of Foot (British Army) in 1860 and joined the Madras Police. Archive.org
• Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official by Arthur Travers Crawford (1894) Bombay Presidency (Archive.org)
• The Bengal Police Manual, 1911 Volume 1, Volume 2, Forms and Appendices (Archive.org)
• Eastern Bengal and Assam Police Manual 1911 (Archive.org)

• Volume 3 Reserve, Ordnance, Clothing, Guards and Escorts
• Volume 4 Court Office
• Volume 5 Inspectors and Police Stations

• Police and crime in India by Edmund Charles Cox 1911 Archiv.org
• Life in the Indian police by Charles Elphinstone Gouldsbury 1912 Archive.org
• Police Regulations, Bengal 1915 Volume 4, Court Office Archive.org
• In an Indian District; an enlarged edition of “Police Notes” by G.G.B. Iver, Indian Police 1919 Archive.org
• The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch 1672-1916 by S M Edwardes 1923 Archive.org
• Crime In India by S M Edwardes 1924 Archive.org
• The Punjab Police Rules 1934. (As Applicable in Haryana State) haryanapolice.nic.in

Thugs

Alternative spelling Thags, Thegs. The crime of Thugee

• Asiatic Researches or Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal, for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences, and literature, of Asia, Volume 13 1820 (Google Books).
  • "Of the Murderers Called Phansigars" by Doctor Sherwood page 250
  • "Observations Regarding Badheks And Thegs" Extracted from an official report by Mr John Shakespear Acting Superintendent of Police for the Western Provinces, dated the 30th April, 1816. page 282
• "The Thugs", page 469 Calcutta Magazine and Monthly Register, Volumes 33-36 1832 (Google Books) includes
  • a reprint of an anonymous letter by W H Sleeman to the editor of the Calcutta Literary Gazette published 16 October 1830 page 503
• "Some account of the Phansigars, or Gang-robbers, and of the Shudgarshids, or Tribe of Jugglers", by James Arthur Robert Stevenson Esq of the Madras Civil Service. (Extracted from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 1. page 280.). Page 255 The Madras Journal of Literature and Science Volume 2 1835 Google Books
• "An account of the Customs and Practices of the murderers called Thugs" by Lieut. P. A. Reynolds 38th Regiment Madras N. I. Page 85 The Madras Journal of Literature and Science, Volume 4 July-October 1836 Google Books
• Ramaseeana: or, A Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language used by the Thugs With An Introduction and Appendix, Descriptive of the System Pursued By That Fraternity and of the Measures Which Have Been Adopted by the Supreme Government of India for its Suppression by William Henry Sleeman 1836 (Google Books)
• Illustrations of the history and practices of the Thugs and notices of some of the Proceedings of the Government of India, for the suppression of the crime of Thugee By Edward Thornton 1837 Google Books
• The Thugs Or Phansigars of India: Comprising a History of the Rise and Progress of that Extraordinary Fraternity of Assassins; and a Description of the System which it Pursues, and of the Measures which Have Been Adopted by the Supreme Government of India for Its Suppression by Captain W H Sleeman, Superintendent of Thug Police 1839 Google Books
• Report on the depredations committed by the thug gangs of upper and central India: from the cold season of 1836-37, down to their gradual suppression, under the operation of the measures adopted against them by the supreme government, in the year 1839 by Major Sleeman Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoites. 1840 (Google Books)
• A popular account of the thugs and dacoits: the hereditary garotters and gang-robbers of India James Hutton 1857(Google Books)
• Report on the crime of thuggee by means of poisons in British territory 1864-66 by Charles Robert W. Hervey (Google Books)