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How to find out about your ancestors

in the Metropolitan Police.

 

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 Unlike most police forces, Metropolitan Police files have often been lodged at the National Archives, Kew, where the public can gain access to them.  
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 In searching for an officer’s details researchers should be aware that not all records have survived. The first important step is to try to identify the officer’s warrant number. These started from no 1 in 1829, and, apart from the first six months, were allocated consecutively according to when officers joined.  
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 A warrant number can therefore indicate the year in which an officer joined. If an officer leaves and re-joins, a second warrant number is allocated.   To see a chart of warrant numbers by year of issue,    click here  
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 For officers with the first 3,247 warrant numbers who joined from September 1829 until about March 1830, you can search on line.   For further details, click here.    The lists may take some time to load.

 

  
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 Details of the first approximately 12,300 recruits, from September 1829 until December 1836 are shown in a Home Office Register of the Metropolitan Police Force (HO 65/26) which partly duplicates MEPO 4/31-2. The register is at the National Archives and has an alphabetical index of officers’ surnames.

 

  

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 There is a series of Registers of Joiners (MEPO 4/333-338) which also give the dates of appointment and other details of officers who joined from (1830) until April 1933 (until warrant number 123091). The index is divided by initial letter of surname, but some letters are not available from 1830. Surnames beginning with B are available from 1830, for instance, but those starting with K are only shown from 1837. There are also gaps in the records because the original registers numbers 1, 4 and 5 are lost. The gaps are pre-1830 (up until warrant number 4988); and from April 1857 until July 1878 (warrant numbers 35805 - 62844).

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When officers joined the Metropolitan Police they were attested as Constables and wrote their signatures in an attestation ledger (MEPO 4/352-360). These ledgers run from February 1869 until May 1958 (warrant numbers 51491 - 146379). The registers run in warrant number sequence according to date of joining and are not otherwise indexed. Searching without a date of joining or a warrant number would therefore be arduous.  The register from May 1958 is at the Metropolitan Police Historic Store which you can contact through us.

An alphabetical index of officers who joined between 1880 and 1889, compiled from MEPO 7/42-51 might be available from the Research Enquiries Room at the National Archives. This is sometimes known as the Storrick index after the person who compiled the list.

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Certificate of Service Records (MEPO 4/361-477) exist for officers who joined from January 1889 until November 1909 (warrant numbers 74201 - 97500). They give details of previous occupation, physical characteristics etc.

A brief record of officers who left the Force is in the Metropolitan Police Register of Leavers volumes 4-16 (MEPO 4/339-351) which run from March 1889 - January 1947.

Officers who served long enough to be pensioned might appear in the Records of Police Pensioners (MEPO 21) which runs from 1853 - 1966.

Officers who died whilst serving are likely to appear in the Return of deaths whilst serving (MEPO 4/2) which runs from 1829 - 1889.

Officers who joined in 1873 should be included in the Record of Service Ledger (MEPO 4/509) for 1873 (warrant numbers 56601 - 56800) .

Police Orders from 1829 - 1931 (MEPO 7) run chronologically by date and may contain details of officers joining or leaving the Force, promotions, disciplinary punishments and so on, depending upon the period. Police Orders were handwritten before 1857 and rarely contain personnel details. Some retirements, promotions and deaths start to appear from about 1854/5. Details of those joining the Force start to appear from about May 1883.

The Metropolitan Women Police Association have a website through which their archivist can be contacted (www.mwpa.org.uk).   The Women Police records database currently runs up to warrant number 7474 (for women who joined up until September 1986).   The last separate warrnt number for women was issued on 8th January 1993 (no 9994).

Officers who have died in the course of their duty are very likely to be included in the Police Roll of Honour Trust website (www.policememorial.org.uk)

For officers who served on part of J Division, especially  Waltham Abbey, try the Epping Forest District Museum.

Census records will often record police officers living in the London area who might have been serving with the City of London, railway, market or dock police. The Metropolitan Police did in fact police the military dockyards and establishments at Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport, Pembroke and Woolwich from 1860 until 1934, and Rosyth 1914 - 1926.    The Friends do have access to the Mike Fountain database of 140,000 police-related names in London census returns, and searches on this database may sometimes be available.

If your family member lived at the Metropolitan and City of London Police Orphanage you may be able to request the Orphans' Fund, which is a registered charity and worth supporting, to  search in their archives.            Click here

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