X Edward James LOWEDear Debbie,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Edward you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you, but first I have topoint out a few things. Sadly as I said we do nothave a photograph, that is to say we may, thereare literally hundreds of photographs of officers,but their names were never recorded on the reverseof the photograph, so from our point they remainunidentifiable.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester.As a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher I am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Theseare large volumes which are in poor condition, andrun from 1857- 22 March 1913; Edward does notappear as a member of the Cheshire Constabulary,however turning to the 1871 Census, it was notedthat he was resident at 8 Napier Street,Warrington, (Census attached in case you do nothave access), Warrington then being part ofLancashire, in fact it did not become a part ofCheshire until 1974. On the 1871 Census it clearlyshows that Edward is recorded as a 'Borough PoliceOfficer'. What this means basically is that thepolice of Warrington were only responsible forthat area, Warrington Borough Police being formedcirca 1833, although in principle their pay andconditions were the same as any other CountyPolice Officer. Warrington Borough Police officerrecords are also held at the Chester RecordOffice, Chester under reference CJP20/12/1.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volume. However if you so wish, you canof course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that TheRecord Office will charge you a minimum of £27 persearch per volume; so please be aware. The Museumcharges, for searching the records are on areducing scale i.e. dependant on the informationrecorded, the maximum amount payable is £10, whichrepresents good value. Your remittance is £10 andas we are working on a trust basis please forwardpayment by cheque made payable to 'The Museum ofPolicing in Cheshire' and send it to The Curator,Mr. Peter Wroe, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire. WA1. 1LQ. incidentally theMuseum is situated in Warrington Police Station,and holds many artefacts of the Warrington BoroughPolice and if you are ever down in this area, itis well worth a visit, all visits are by viaappointment, in order that we can show the visitoraround on an individual basis.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, underthe drop down menu marked 'History' I feel certainthat a useful picture can be obtained of life inthe police at the time, also within this sectionis information on Warrington Borough. My ownopinion is, whichever force you belonged todiscipline was draconian, in particular WarringtonBorough where discipline was very harsh, those whostrayed outside the rules were fined way abovewhat they earned or dismissed. Also therestrictions on their private life, an officer wasnot allowed to drink on or off duty even in hisown home.I trust you will enjoy what follows; can I ask youwhen you get a moment would you send a quick mailso I can mark of your enquiry as complete? This isimportant to us, as we are a fairly new Museum andwhilst we are not supported in any way by theCheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak, and we have to show ourworth or lack of it, if you have any comments goodor bad and the cost of the report we wouldappreciate your comments. If you have any furtherquestions please don't hesitate to contact me. JimTalbot. Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. Police Constable 10 EdwardJames LOWEBorn. 1840, Middlewich, Cheshire.Date of Entry. 16th December 1869, at the time ofhis entry he gave his area of residence asSandbach Cheshire, which you will note that hisbrother and sister in law James and Emily Woodwere born in Sandbach, which means of course thatEdward's wife was formerly Sarah Wood.Date of Leaving. 22nd September 1881, I haveactually searched the 1881 Census but been unableto locate him.How Discharged. Resigned, the reason given as dueto failing eyesight.Initial Posting. Borough of Warrington only.Miscellaneous Information. Trade or Calling Shopman. Last employer, Self Employed. Height 5' 9",Age on joining 29 years. Hair Dark Brown, EyesBlue, Complexion Light. Distinguishing Marks, Nil.Marital Status, Married, Children Three. Member ofany Party or Society Nil. Total Service 11 years280 days. Died 1884.Promotion. No promotion recorded.Weekly Pay. 6th December 1869 19/-. 21st July 187020/-. 4th August 1870 21/-. 1st March 1871 22/-.29th March 1872 23/-. 4th April 1872 24/-. 1stAugust 1872 25/-. 15th March 1873 27/-. 25th June1875 28/-. 20th May 1880 Reduced to 26/-.Discharged with a gratuity of £20.0s.0d. (Thisbasically means that all the payments ofapproximately 6d per week, to the Superannuationfund plus a little extra were returned to him.Misconduct. 3rd June 1873 complaint made by MaryWebster daughter of Joseph Webster of Dallam Lane,Warrington for having at 11.30am committed anindecent assault upon her whilst serving in thehouse of Henry Wilkinson, Beer seller at theVictoria Vaults, Mersey Street where she was aservant. Lowe was ordered to attend before theWatch Committee on the 5th June when the case wasadjourned until the 12th June to see what actionthe complainant would take as to his prosecutionby the Magistrates. On 13th he again attendedbefore the Watch Committee and was fined 10/- thecomplainant having declined to prosecute him.5th May 1878 reported by Sergeant Berry foromitting duty in not attending in front of theParish Church and Neighbourhood from 10.30am to 12noon Sunday 5th May having been specially orderedto attend the same, fined 2/6d, by the ChiefConstable.13th May 1880 reported by the Chief Constable forbeing generally indolent in the discharge of hisduties and being useless as a Constable. I (theChief Constable) therefore bring him before theWatch Committee and recommend his dismissal orreduction in rank and pay. Reduced by the WatchCommittee to 2/6d per week for 3 months and thento appear before them again.With regard to his first misconduct report on the3rd June, I would not look upon Edward too harshlyand perhaps in his defence there are two ways tolook at this, it was truly an indecent assault inthat he did touch the woman's person meaning to doso, or it was an accident. It was not uncommonthen for an allegation to be made against aConstable in the hope of that some type ofcompensation would be made, and it will be seenthat the complainant declined to prosecute, itcould well be that Edward did in fact paycompensation to her from his own pocket in ordernot to be brought before the Chief Constable, evenso he was fined for the incident but he would bein an impossible position to prove his innocencein as much as in the vast majority of cases thecomplainant would be believed before theConstable.His second misconduct report on the 5th May,having all the Warrington Borough Misconductreports in front of me for every officer, believeme when I say there were not many officers thatwere not reported by Sergeant Berry, it is veryapparent that he took great delight in reportingthe men for the most trivial of matters.Lastly the 13th May, being lazy, it is perhapsworth bearing in mind that officers of the daywork a minimum of 12 hours day and nights in splitshifts, they walked everywhere, all weathers,without any due regard to their personal wellbeing, being taken into consideration, againhaving all the records in front of me and see whatthe officer had to put up with, it truly must havebeen the most sole destroying of occupations.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. Nonerecorded.Lastly where the reference BSI appears on theMuseum database this applies to a website known asthe Black Sheep Index (www.blacksheepindex.co.uk)this is a site that carries articles from varioussources like Newspapers and the Police Reviewconcerning Police Officers. On occasions theofficer's full name is not given, but we havetried to make a match against what the MuseumRecords show. In 1884 the Death Notice of EdwardJ. Lowe, Warrington is shown to be available.There are charges involved to obtain thesecuttings direct from the owner of the website. Itis emphasized that the Museum does not know thecontents of these cuttings and takes noresponsibility for them. The Museum is onlyshowing this as an aid that there is furtherinformation from another source. If you decide youwould like this article when applying please statethat you have received this information from theMuseum of Policing in Cheshire, whilst you willnot get it any cheaper it just may help speed upthe process.