1. Organisation
The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 defined the original Metropolitan Police District as an area of about seven miles radius from Charing Cross, London. The second Act in 1839 amended this to include the whole of Middlesex and those parishes in the counties of Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent which had parts not more than 15 miles in a straight line from Charing Cross (except the City of London). By 1869 the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police was divided into 4 Districts, each of which had a number of Divisions, as follows:
No.1 District: G - Finsbury; H - Whitechapel; K - Stepney; N - Islington; and Thames Division.
No. 2 District: D - Marylebone; E - Holborn; S - Hampstead; X - Paddington; Y - Highgate.
No. 3 District: A - Whitehall; B - Westminster; C - St. James's; T - Kensington; V - Wandsworth.
No. 4 District: L - Lambeth; M - Southwark; P - Camberwell; R - Greenwich; W - Clapham.
There was also an F - Division (Covent Garden) and, in 1886, a J Division (Bethnal Green) was added in 1886. In 1921 Z Division was formed for Croydon which has previously been included in W Division, and in 1965 Q Division was formed for the Wembley area previously divided between T and S Divisions. Division letter codes I, O and U were never used.
The Bow Street Horse Patrol was incorporated into the force in 1836 and operated in the outlying Metropolitan divisions. The second Metropolitan Police Act 1839 converted the River Thames force into the Thames Division, and absorbed the Bow Street Foot Patrol.
The establishment of the Metropolitan Police also had responsibility for the police of the Royal Dockyards and military stations, Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport, Pembroke and Woolwich, from 1860 until 1934 and Rosyth in Scotland from 1914 until 1926; information about dockyard police prior to 1860 might be found in the civil pensions for artificers and labourers (ADM 23).
Attempts to incorporate the City of London police into the force were unsuccessful and it has always retained its independence (see Other Police Forces below).
A superintendent was in charge of each division, under whom were four inspectors and sixteen sergeants. The regulations demanded that recruits should be under thirty-five, well built, at least five feet seven in height, literate and of good character. The minimum age is usually considered to be twenty years but the certificates of service (MEPO 4/361-477) include recruits as young as eighteen; service before the age of twenty was not considered for pension purposes.
2. Staff records
Metropolitan Police staff records have not survived in their entirety.
Nearly all the staff records detail name, rank, warrant number, division and dates of appointment and removal. Information additional to this has been noted in the records listed below:
2.1 Numerical registers
Numerical registers of warrant numbers 1-3247, September 1829 - March 1830 (MEPO 4/31-32) give the officer's height and cause of removal from the force. Photographs of these documents can be downloaded from the Your Archives section of The National Archives website. Please note that the contents of Your Archives is contributed by users.
2.2 Alphabetical register
1829-1836 (HO 65/26) gives dates of promotion or demotion.
2.3 Alphabetical registers of joiners
September 1830 - April 1857; July 1878-1933 (MEPO 4/333-338). The earliest volumes give names and addresses of referees.
2.4 Attestation ledgers
Ledgers for warrant numbers 51491-146379, February 1869 - May 1958 (MEPO 4/352-360) give signatures of the recruit and witness. Photographs of these documents can be downloaded from the Your Archives section of The National Archives website. Please note that the contents of Your Archives is contributed by users.
2.5 Certificate of service
Certificates for warrant numbers 74201-97500, January 1889 - November 1909 (MEPO 4/361-477) give a description of recruit, date of birth, trade, marital status, residence, number of children, name and place of last employer, previous public service, surgeon's certificate, postings to divisions, dates of promotion or demotion and cause of removal.
2.6 Registers of leavers
March 1889 - January 1947 (MEPO 4/339-351) give class of officer, number of certificate granted if not dismissed (1. Excellent, 2. Very Good, 3. Good, 4. Open, i.e. no comment), date certificate sent to division, number of documents an officer is entitled to, according to regulations, and date documents sent to division. These last two details are phased out around 1913-1914 and the comments on an officer's conduct are no longer expressed numerically. The abbreviation RP stands for 'resignation permitted' and is replaced in October 1920 by RR 'required to resign'. The divisional abbreviation CO stands for 'Commissioner's Office'. Photographs of these documents, and a transcribed index , can be downloaded from the Your Archives section of The National Archives website. Please note that the contents of Your Archives is contributed by users.
3. Pension records
Before the Police Pensions Act 1890, pensions were granted on a discretionary basis. The Act provided a legal right to a pension after twenty-five years service, and a modified pension or gratuity if discharged medically unfit. Pensions and gratuities, 1829-1859, are mentioned in the early series of correspondence and papers (MEPO 5/1-90).
Records of Metropolitan Police pensioners who retired or resigned between 1852 and 1968 and who were granted or (after 1890) qualified for a police pension are to be found in class MEPO 21. These contain detailed personal records, including physical description, date and place of birth, marital status, dates of service. Before 1923, names of parents and next of kin are also given. You can search by name of officer on The Catalogue for MEPO 21 for dates of retirement until March 1889. After March 1889 it is necessary to know the approximate date of retirement to use this series. (The date of retirement can be determined by referring to the register of leavers).
4. Other sources
- An incomplete nominal index of officers, largely drawn from the records listed above, is held in the Open Reading Room. Also held in this room is an index to officers who joined the Metropolitan Police between 1880-1889.
- Women police patrols were appointed to the force in February 1919 but they were not sworn in as constables with powers of arrest until April 1923. Records of some of the very first women patrols employed in 1919 are held at the Metropolitan Historical Collection, many include photgraphs and later records of service.
The Metropolitan Women Police Association also have archives and hold a database of names of all women police officers from warrant No.1, issued in 1919, to warrant No.7474, issued in 1986. - The Metropolitan Police force is augmented by the Special Constabulary: private citizens who undertake police duties. Details of the careers of special constables are published in Police Orders (MEPO 7). An 1875 nominal roll of officers sworn in to supplement the work of the regular force is held under reference MEPO 2/143. It gives date of appointment, place of work as a constable and name of sponsor.
- Returns of deaths whilst serving, 1829-1889 (MEPO 4/2) give the cause of death.
- A National Police Officers Roll of Honour is maintained by the Police Roll of Honour Trust. This comprises a record of public service and sacrifice of some 4,000 UK police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, by any means, in more than three centuries of professional law enforcement, and it includes a section for the Metropolitan Police.
- Police Orders for the period 1829-1989 (MEPO 7) contain notification of personnel matters arranged annually. They are closed for fifty years. Details of officers pensioned, promoted, dismissed and transferred have been indexed for some of these volumes and are in (MEPO 7/156-164). An alphabetical index of officers who joined between 1880 and 1889, compiled from the Police Orders of those years (MEPO 7/42-51), is available at The National Archives. Each entry consists of surname with at least one forename, warrant number, date of joining and (where applicable) date of leaving.
- Joining papers and particulars of service of certain distinguished officers have been preserved amongst the Special Series of correspondence and papers from the Commissioner's Office (MEPO 3/2883-2921). These personal files are subject to closure for at least seventy-five years.
- Incomplete divisional records for A, B, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, N, R and Y divisions are held by the Metropolitan Police Historical Museum, c/o Room 1317 New Scotland Yard, Broadway , London, SW1H 0BG. Thames Division ledgers are held at Wapping Police Station Museum, 98 Wapping High Street, London EC1. The Metropolitan Police Historical Museum and the Wapping Police Station Museum will try to answer written enquiries.
- Files on awards of the Kings Police Medal from its introduction in 1909 can be found under the honours and awards subject code in the list to registered papers of the Home Office (HO 45) and a list of awards, 1909-1912, is given in MEPO 2/1300.
- A register of officers under consideration for the award of the Kings Police Medal 1909 to 1951 is held under reference MEPO 22/2. Notifications of awards are published in Police Orders (MEPO 7) and the London Gazette (available online and in ZJ 1).
5. Other Metropolitan Police records
MEPO record series also contain details of the administration and organisation of the Metropolitan Police Force.
Records relating to police work and investigations can be found in series MEPO 2, MEPO 3 and MEPO 4, and files created after 1969 can be found in MEPO 26-MEPO 38. Registers of habitual criminals from 1834 can be found in MEPO 6. Documents in this series are generally subject to a 75 year closure period. MEPO 20 contains an incomplete register of Murders and Violent Deaths in the Metropolitan Police area from 1891.
6. Plans and photographs
Architectural plans and drawings of police buildings from 1847 to 1957 can be found in series MEPO 9. Maps of police districts and their changing boundaries from 1894 are held in series MEPO 15. Photographs originating from the force's Publication Information Department dating back to 1901 are held in series MEPO 13. MEPO 14 contains photographs of police stations from 1857 to 1983. Documents in this series are not subject to a closure period. MEPO 14/26 are annotated with histories of the stations.
Further information relating to the Metropolitan Police and other forces can be found amongst records of the Home Office.
7. Other police forces
Records of other police forces, except the Royal Irish Constabulary, are not public records. Those which survive are held either by the appropriate local record office or the force itself.
- Correspondence relating to colonial police forces can be found in the papers of the Colonial Office but the records of the forces themselves, like those of local forces in this country, are not held here but might well have been deposited in the archives of the country to which they relate.
- The City of London Police: Registers listing every member of the force since warrant numbers were introduced on 9 April 1832 together with personal files on 95% of officers who have served since that date can be found at the London Metropolitan Archives.
- See the index mentioned above in paragraph 4.
