Fragments in Time

History of BME policing in the UK

Transcript

  1. Fragments in Time History in the Making Law-Police-Justice-History “Let justice be done though the heavens fall” Suchitra Chatterjee for Black History Project & Sussex Police 2015
  2. Thomas Latham – Parish Constable – The first BME police officer in the UK? Year – 1746 Thomas Latham was described in the Middlesex Sessions records as being a “Negro [Parish] Constable”
  3. Nathaniel Wells – Justice of the Peace Nathaniel Wells was born in 1779 in St Kitts, the son of a slave and a Welsh Merchant. Wells eventually became a Justice of the Peace in1803. Four of his daughters moved to Brighton in 1888
  4. John Kent – Police Constable John Kent was the son of a former slave and an English girl who became a Police Constable in 1837 in Carlisle. He was known by his Police colleagues as “Black Kent”
  5. Henry Solomon – Chief Constable Henry Solomon was the Chief Constable of Brighton in the 1830s. He was Jewish and an active member of his local Synagogue. He was murdered whilst still in office in 1844
  6. Baron David Pitt of Hampstead Baron David Pitt founded the Campaign against Racial Discrimination, Britain’s first civil Rights Organization in the 1950s. He was also a Staunch advocate for people of colour to join the police.
  7. Sislin Fay Allen – Police Constable Sislin Fay Allen was the first Black woman to join London’s Metropolitan Police Force in the 1968. She worked as a Nurse before she became a Police officer
  8. Norwell Roberts joined the Met in 1967 when he was 21 years old and achieved media and public attention because he was at the time believed to be the first Black Police Officer in London Norwell Roberts – Police Constable
  9. Karpal Kaur Sandu – Police Constable Karpal Kaur Sandu joined the Metropolitan Police Force in 1971. Like her contemporary Sislin Fay Allen was a Nurse before becoming a police officer. She was also murdered whilst still a serving police officer
  10. Lee-Jane Yates – Police Sergeant Lee-Jane Yates joined the police 1981. Her first post was in Bow Street in London. She worked for the Metropolitan Police Service for 30 years before retiring in 2014
  11. Peter Reid – Police Sergeant Peter Reid joined the Thames Valley Police in 1985 He was based in and around Oxford. In 1990 and 1992 he also achieved the title of Mr Universe in the arena of competitive body building
  12. Caroline Murrell nee Dugdale – Police Constable Caroline Murrell was a founder member of the Sussex Black Police Association (SBPA) in She joined Sussex Police in 1993. Her death in 2009 was the result of a degenerative illness.
  13. PCSO Cheryl Marsh Cheryl Marsh joined Sussex Police in 2003 as a PCSO. She was instrumental in getting Domestic Violence training for PCSO’S implemented throughout Brighton & Hove. She died in 2007 from Asbestosis.
  14. Michael Fuller QPM – Chief Constable Michael Fuller QPM is the former Chief Constable of the Count of Kent. He was and still is the first Black Chief Constable in the UK and he took up his post in 2004.
  15. Contact Details Suchitra Chatterjee Black History project Suchi@black-history.org.uk Sussex Police Suchitra.Chatterjee@sussex.pnn.police.uk Photographs courtesy of the internet, the families of PCSO MARSH, PC Caroline Dugdale, & BH Designs