Police

The East Midlands Oral History Archive contains several interviews with former policemen who talk about their jobs before and during WW2. The Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland holds some excellent photos of the force taken in 1945 by Harold White for the British Council, one of which we have reproduced below.

A compilation of memories of crime and punishment in this period can be listened to here. A brief clip from this compilation can be listened to below.

From 1875 the force was based at the Town Hall but this became overcrowded and the widening of Charles Street in 1932 presented the opportunity for the police to move into a new purpose built police headquarters, designed by G Noel Hill and AT Gooseman of Leicester City Architects' Department, which was completed in 1933.

In 1932 the Force bought a Kodak camera and equipment so that fingerprinting and photography could be done on the premises. In 1935 a teleprinter was installed to connect Leicester to Nottingham where morse code signals could be sent to wireless receivers in police cars across the region. In 1936 a new switchboard was added and more than 42 lines connected police boxes and telephone posts across the City to Police HQ.

At the start of World War Two 35,000 sandbags were allocated to Charles Street to protect against bombing. In the last week of August 1939 almost every constable and sergeant on the force spent their spare time filling bags and shifting sand. A year later all the bags had to be removed as the pavements were cracking under the weight!

The audio clip for this page was created by Samantha Smith.