Police

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Sgt Meppen Warburton Walter in police uniform, Calcutta 1919

Records

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:

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 : Hero or Villain? by Dr Sudhir Kumar Jha (former Director General of Police, Bihar) July 22, 2014. “British Raj in India”.
    • Charles Tegart of the Indian Police: an unpublished biography by Lady Tegart is available at the British Library with European Manuscripts catalogue entry Mss Eur C235 1881-1946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".
  • 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. Orwell was stationed from December 1926 to June 1927 in the northern town of Katha, on which the fictional town of Kyauktada in Upper Burma in the novel is based. Online edition: Burmese Days Gutenberg.net.au. For more details, see George Orwell
  • Sergeant J. D. Conway, Madras Police was awarded the Indian Police Medal, G.V.R., for Distinguished Conduct in 1934 for operations against the hill tribes in the Kalyanasingpur Valley of the Vizagapatam Agency in January 1933.[1]
  • Inspector James Dwyer, Bengal Police] was awarded the Indian Police Medal, G.V.R., for Distinguished Conduct in 1935. He joined the Calcutta Police from the British Army in 1919.[2]
  • Bill Taylor of the Bombay Police Force became Deputy Commissioner of Police. His daughter Maxine (whose married name became Steller) describes life as a policeman's daughter. Initially, the family lived in quarters behind the various police stations he was assigned to, where her life was very different to the ones normal families led. They moved to some very dangerous areas, and during riots the children would be escorted to and from school by a sepoy. Her father later on had responsibility for ensuring the safety of visiting dignitaries. [3]

External links


Thugs and thuggee

Historical books online

Fiction
Annual Report on the Police of the City of Bombay, for the year 1936 (Commissioner of Police, Bombay, 1937) Link to a pdf download Digital Repository of GIPE, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India

Thugs

Alternative spelling Thags, Thegs. The crime of Thuggee (Thugee)

References

  1. ↑ Digital page 54, item 235 [DNW] ‘’ Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria’’ March 2014 Archive.org.
    Conway: dnw.co.uk with zoom feature for the image of the medal.
  2. ↑ Digital page 54, item 234 [DNW]‘’ Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria’’ March 2014. Archive.org.
    Dwyer: dnw.co.uk with zoom feature for the image of the medals.
  3. ↑ Maxine Steller’s Bombay tajmahalfoxtrot.com

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