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In March 1915 a crisis of manpower in
the police was said, by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Edward
Henry, to be urgent and looming. He portrayed the Metropolitan Police as
recruiting large numbers of policemen during 1889-1890, who would shortly
complete 26 years’ service and so be due to retire on a pension. Not only would
the force shortly lose these men, but 3,015 younger policemen had been withdrawn
from the Metropolitan Police as Reservists into the Army, or for other employment
on special military duties or for the protection of the dockyards and military
stations. Sir Edward Henry’s statistics showed that since the outbreak of war,
an additional 380 policemen had left between 1st August and 31st
December 1914, due to being unfit or on voluntary retirement. His letter to the
Secretary of State pleaded that he had received notice from a further 60 policemen
who were due to retire at the end of April and expected that within a year this
number would have risen to 652 experienced police officers, due to retirement. To
help to retain many of them, he recommended suspending the right to retire, unless
on a medical certificate or with the consent of the Chief Constable. He said
this had the support of the police generally. The Police
(Emergency Provisions) Act, 1915 enacted
this request, removing the right of most time-expired officers to retire with a
pension. This delayed, for officers in England, Wales and Scotland, their right
to retire on a pension until the end of the war, unless they had private means
to be able to afford to retire without their police pension.
With the continual call up of younger
policemen into the army, retaining those beyond pensionable age was one reason
that the profile of the police during the First World War increased in age.
Further reading
Fraser, M. (2019) Policing
the Home Front 1914-1918: The control of the British population at war. Routledge
research monograph
Hodge, J.M. & Garside, T.H. (1918)
War Pensions and Allowances. London:
Hodder and Stoughton, pp. 147-150
Letter from Sir Edward Henry to The
Under Secretary of State, 30th March 2015. Metropolitan Police and
National Defence. TNA MEPO 2/7205
Robb, G. (2015) British Culture and the First World War (2nd edition)
London: Palgrave
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