Police
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
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- Charles Tegart of the Indian Police: an unpublished biography by Lady Tegart is available at the British Library with European Manuscripts catalogue entry Mss Eur C235 1881-1946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
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)
- 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