Q&A

KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset

ALAN CROSBY lives in Lancashire and is the editor of The Local Historian

CHRIS PATON is a genealogist and author, and blogs at scottishgenes.blogspot.com

JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist

EDWARD SMITH is the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre’s curatorial assistant

ALAN STEWART is a family history writer, and author of Grow Your Own Family Tree

RUTH SYMES is the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Through Letters & Personal Writings

PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert, and wrote Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors

How can I find out about my ancestor’s time in the police?

Q My great grandfather, James Willis, was in the police force. I found some details about him on The National Archives’ website. They show that he joined up on 18 July 1870, was a police constable in K Division in West Ham and that his warrant number was 52870. Can you tell me how to find out more information about his time as a policeman?

Pauline Rouse

Serendipitously, the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre holds a virtual people file on the holder of warrant number 52870. This links him to a man born c1842 in Woodford, Essex, who was still a police constable on his marriage to Sarah Hardiman at St Ann’s Limehouse on 20 April 1871. The couple are recorded as having children in Bromley-by-Bow from 1874 onwards. That would be