DORSET CONSTABULARY OFFICERS who were issued with medals for the Coronation of King GEORGE V in 1911
1911 was not the first time the Sovereign had issued medals to the police. Queen Victoria issued her first medal, the Police Golden Jubilee Medal in 1887. This was issued to all police officers that were on duty in London, on the 21st June 1`887, either during the celebrations or part of the procession. It appears only officers from the Metropolitan and City of London Police were involved, so no other Forces would have been issued with the medal.
Ten years later in 1897 another medal was minted, the Police Diamond Jubilee Medal which again was just issued to the London officers, but this time it also included Fire and Ambulance officers.
In 1902 the Police Coronation Medal was minted for the Coronation of King EDWARD V11 and Queen ALEXANDRA on 9th August 1902. Again no police officers received it from outside London.
Above are medals presented to a Metropolitan Police Constable.
To commemorate the Coronation of KING GEORGE V in June 1911, the following month, the king decided that he wanted a medal cast, which he could issue to police officers for their long and meritorious service .
Each force throughout the land received a certain amount of medals, which were given to the Chief Constable, who could decide which policemen to issue them to. The allocation to each force was based on its size, and based on one medal to twenty policemen. So, the Dorset County Constabulary received 10 medals, where as other forces like Gloucester Constabulary received 20 and Bath City 6.
A year later on 6th Aug 1912 the Force presented their allocation to its most senior officers. This is above photograph taken afterwards, where the recipients are showing off their medals, but enlarged for clarity and the fact it was the first medal ceremony.
I have split the 1912 photograph for more clarity but based on the whole photograph, shown at the start, the officers are:
6 STANDING (from left to right)
SGT 22 David NORTHOVER Shaftesbury
PC 70 George PAYNE Dorchester HQ
PC 45 Joseph JAMES Chedington
PC 74 George HELYAR Shapwick
PC 75 Charles LIGHT
PC 41 Charles CHURCHILL
3 SEATED ( left to right)
SUPT George BROWN Poole
CHIEF CONSTABLE Dennis GRANVILLE HQ
DCC William PLUMMER HQ
Some of you will be checking your maths at the moment and thinking correctly, WHERE is the tenth policeman?
I do not know why, but Supt Solomon DENNETT, who had completed 34 years and was in charge of the Dorchester Division is missing.
Considering he is second most senior, it is odd he is not mentioned at the ceremony. Maybe he was not well at home.
There is another oddity, in that PC 70 George PAYNE ( in plain clothes, the Chief Constables “bat man” ) is actually wearing the medal of Supt DENNETT.
SGT John Tom LIGHT, who had retired in November 1911 is also not in the photograph, so maybe the photograph was an after thought and taken later.
In the western gazette Capt GRANVILLE is described as wearing his official uniform of blue and silver and the ceremony took place in the Council Chambers where the medals were presented according to seniority.
Captain GRANVILLE received his medal first with the congratulations of the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Colonel J. MOUNTBATTEN C.B who was also in uniform. Capt GRANVILLE had served for 14 years as head of the Constabulary and then he introduced his officers.
Next was DCC William PLUMMER who had completed 21 years and 3 months service, who was followed by Supt George BROWN, who had served for 37 years. Supt DENNETT would have been next.
The presentations continued with the senior Sgt’s John Tom LIGHT (missing in the photograph) and David NORTHOVER followed by the 4 senior first class constables, George HELYAR, having completed, 25 years and 9 months, Charles CHURCHILL, 25 years and 5 months, Joseph JAMES, 24 years and 2 months and last Charles LIGHT, 21 years and 3 months.
The Lord Lieutenant praised the officers and hoped they would be able would live long to wear their medals.
Here is a photograph of what the medals would have looked like. It appears all the major city Forces had their names on but not the County and Boroughs.
( Hopefully I will be doing a post on George HELYAR later)
1935
THE KING GEORGE V SILVER JUBILEE MEDAL
The parade took place on 20th July 1935 at Hyde Park, London.
A contingent of the Dorset Constabulary took part in the Royal review at Hyde Park, London , headed by Insp William GALPIN.
If you search the internet you can find various films from BRITISH PATHE news which shows the procession and the policemen along the route.
Officers attended the capital from all over the Country and a total of 8,051 were on parade.
Those that attended from Dorset Constabulary and their stations were:
INSP William GALPIN Weymouth
SGT Ernie PAGE Weymouth
PC 143 Wilfred LOCKYER Bridport
PC 89 George C SAMWAYS Bridport
PC 202 William APPLIN Bridport
PC 1 Oscar SIMS Bridport
PC 90 Fred DANN Dorchester
PC 166 Alan S COOMBS Dorchester
PC 85 Robert J CARTER Dorchester ?
PC ? CHASE not sure which brother
PC 172 George TREVISS Poole ?
PC 218 Arthur W REEVES Poole
PC 16 Albert G JAMES Poole
PC 120 C R CROSS Sherborne
PC 114 John W CULLEY Sherborne
PC 26 Frank S LOADER Wareham
PC 7 Cecil BRUTON Wareham
PC 67 Clifford O WALLER Weymouth
PC ? CONWAY Weymouth not sure which brother
PC 41 Edward G WELSH Weymouth
PC 160 Harry SHELDRAKE Weymouth
PC 149 Herbert A GOODCHILD Weymouth
PC 183 Jack CLIST Wimborne
PC 99 Frank J BISHOP Wimborne ?
The Chief Constable, Major PEEL YATES also attended with a number of police pensioners from Dorset.
This was the parade programme.
I had a few technical issues copying all the above programme so if you are wondering where the Dorset officers stood in the parade, they were at block 40 at the rear.
The above photograph at Dorchester HQ, shows Lord Shaftesbury, the Lord Lieutenant for the County presenting the last 1935 Royal Silver Jubilee medal to Special Sgt FRISBY of Dorchester. The parade took place on Sunday 9th June 1935.
At that time there was no recognised uniform for the specials. So Sgt FRISBY was just given a cap and the stripes to put round his own jacket arm.
At some time later the below photograph was taken across the yard.
The officers are named below with their divisions:
Front Row Sitting :
Supt Joe CHERRETT (Sherborne)
Supt Joe SWAIN (Poole )
Supt Percy BECK (Bridport)
Chief Constable Lionel PEEL YATES (HQ)
Deputy Chief Alfred BARRETT (HQ)
Supt Samuel LOVELL OBE (Dorchester)
Supt Bertie SPRACKLING (Weymouth)
Supt John DARK (Wimborne )
Back row standing:
Detective Insp Freddie W CARTER (HQ)
Detective Sergeant Cyril W POPE (Poole)
Detective Constable Walter J SARTIN (Weymouth)
Insp William E GALPIN (Weymouth)
Sgt Andrew READ (Parkstone)
Sgt George BURT (Dorchester)
PC 88 George MARGRIE (Lulworth)
PC 140 William C PULLMAN (Upper Parkstone)
PC 151 William M LEWIS (Ferndown)
PC 16 Jimmy A G JAMES (Branksome)
PC 64 William C CARTER (Sherborne)
Special SGT George Edwin RANDALL (Lyme Regis) who enrolled in 1920
Special SGT John Arthur FRISBY (Dorchester) who enrolled in 1920
Special SGT A J R SAUNDERS (Upper Parkstone) who enrolled in 1916 is missing.
Again I have split the photograph so hopefully you can see some clarity.
Obviously every single officer is displaying at least one medal on their chest/uniform. Some are wearing their WW1 medals, Supt LOVELL is wearing his MBE, (see post of the 1926 Mining Strike ).
1937
KING GEORGE V1 CORONATION MEDAL
I do not know which officers from Dorset attended the parade but here is parts of the official programme from May 12th 1937.
On Wednesday 19th May 1937, Mr A J WOODROFFE (chairman of the Dorset Standing Joint Committee) presented Coronation medals to a number of the Dorset Constabulary at police headquarters, Dorchester after 15 medals had been allocated for police men and 3 for the specials.
The Chief Constable after allocating 8 to the Divisional Commanders then again had the thankless task of issuing the remaining 5 with a choice of about 1000 officers. When he spoke, he said he could only hope that those who had been omitted would not feel disappointed or aggrieved.
The officers are named below with their stations:
Chief Constable Lionel PEEL YATES HQ
Deputy Chief Alfred BARRETT HQ
Supt Joe CHERRETT Sherborne
Supt Joe SWAIN Poole
Supt Tommy CARTER Bridport
Supt Samuel LOVELL Dorchester
Supt Bernie SPRACKLING Weymouth
Supt John DARK Wimborne
Insp Reg DRAKE Portland
Insp William BURROUGH Blandford
Sgt George DIMENT Bridport
Sgt Charles TAYLOR Sherborne
PC 208 Alfred HEAD Lytchett Minster
PC 211 Albert G BAILEY Poole
PC 101 William R LONG West Moors
Special Constabulary:
Insp G FRY Dorchester
Insp H P ELLIS Wimborne
Sgt T W FOWLER Bridport
Unfortunately I do not have a photograph from this ceremony.
1951
In 1951 the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was created. The medal was created by King GEORGE V1 in June of that year and any officer with 20 years plus service qualified providing he or she had been of good character and given good service.
There must have been a parade at HQ for all those that qualified as I have this photograph of my grandfather receiving his medal at Dorchester from Capt A V HAMBRO, Chairman of the Dorset Standing Joint Committee.
1953
QUEEN ELIZABETH 11 CORONATION MEDAL
The Coronation ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey Tuesday 2nd June 1953.
City, County and Borough policemen attended from all over the UK.
The Dorset Constabulary contingent consisted of 2 Inspectors, 4 Sgts and 36 Constables. According to the operational order the officers were under the command of Supt J J T GAVIN, OF “W” Division, Metropolitan Police, who was in charge of East Carriage Road, from Stanhope Gate to Mount Street. Funnily enough pretty much by the Dorchester Hotel. Their job along with other officers from “W” Division and some special constables was too, keep the line and preserve order and keep space for the band.
This was the Coronation route and a closer in version showing where the Dorset men were positioned.
The Bournemouth Borough Police also attended with an Insp, 2 x Sgts and 21 Constables and were positioned in the line on the north side of Oxford Street.
About a month later Dorset officers paraded at HQ to receive their medals. From the photograph there could be about 28 officers that were given the medal, however only the ones identified below can be named.
Officers in the front row are all the Supt’s from, left to right:
1: Frank ELMES Poole
2: Ernest PAGE Bridport
3: George GRAY Wimborne
4: Reginald SPILLER Sherborne
5: David BLAKEMAN Dorchester
6: Victor SWATRIDGE HQ Admin
Inspectors in the second row.
1: ?
2: Ernie GRANT Wareham
3: ? ( hidden behind Frank Elmes )
4: Harold SWATRIDGE Poole
Also at the rear on the right you can see two officers wearing plain hats, so you can be sure it is the top two in the CID. Supt Ernie ROSSITER and Insp Harry SHELDRAKE.
Victor SWATRIDGE receiving his medal in 1953 from probably Capt H KIRBY.
His medals are shown below.
From left to right, Long service, Coronation and War Defence medal.
Below are Ernie GRANT’S medals thanks to g/son Dave GRANT
