X PatronGerald Cavendish GrosvenorDuke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DLYour ref: JT65/2012James GREENDear Cath,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning James you may be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you, but first I have to point outa few things. Sadly we do not have a photograph,that is to say we may, there are literallyhundreds of photographs of officers, but theirnames were never recorded on the reverse of thephotograph so from the Museums perspective theyremain unidentifiable. If you have a photographand you would like to share it a scanned copywould be wonderful or for that matter any otherinformation you may have that could be added tohis file. And it is at all possible a photographof the watch would be wonderful.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. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolume 2. Further within the PRO at Chester thereis a separate file appertaining to the murder ofJames under reference CJP27/16/8, however it doesnot contain any further information than what Iwill give you in fact the file contains a lot lessin particular the Newspaper entries which I havecollected during my research over the years onJames.Further, there are 33 Volumes each containingapproximately 400 pages of General Orders, theseare basically the everyday events of the CheshireConstabulary and date from April 1857 to 1946,they are also normally held at the Record Officein Chester under reference CJP4, however they arepresently held by the Museum. Each Volume ishandwritten and although they can be scanned theycannot be searched to extract the information asthe character recognition software just does notrecognise handwriting. They are therefore beingtranscribed into a searchable word document, whichis a very long and slow process, the years from1857 to 1884 are complete and the extracts fromthese Orders concerning James will be within thisreport below.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volumes. However if you so wish, youcan of 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; therefore your bill should youwish to have all the above mentioned Volumessearched would amount to several hundreds ofpounds, so please be aware. The cost of yourreport is £10, and given the above information Ifeel certain that you will agree that thisrepresents value for money.The Museum is within the confines of WarringtonPolice Station which is an operational stationtherefore visits to the Museum are by appointmentonly, normally on Mondays and Fridays. If youwould like to visit please forward a quick mail acouple of weeks before and I feel certain theCurator Mr. Peter Wroe and Staff will doeverything possible to accommodate you.Payment can be made by going to the Museum websitewww.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk within thedrop down 'Index' is the section marked 'FamilyResearch' there it will be seen 'Pay-Pal orDebit/Credit Card' click on this and follow theinstructions, when payment is received by theMuseum Pay-Pal will automatically let the Museumknow. If you prefer to pay by cheque please makeit payable to the 'Museum of Policing in Cheshire'and send it to the Curator, Mr. Peter Wroe, Museumof Policing, County Police Office, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire CW1 1LQ, if you pay in thismanner will you kindly let me know.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary by going to the web site, INDEX dropdown menu, HISTORY and look for "To the Best ofOur Skill and Knowledge" I feel certain that auseful picture can be obtained of life in theforce at the time, my own opinion is thatdiscipline was draconian and those who strayedoutside the rules were fined way above what theyearned or dismissed. Also the restrictions ontheir private life, an officer was not allowed todrink on or off duty even in his own home. It allcomes down to the fact that up until the 1960'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was anex-military officer and they of course broughtwith them the military codes of practice. James'smurder is noted within the history and I haveincluded that information in the report.I trust you will enjoy what follows and can I askyou when you get a moment would you send a quickmail so I can mark of your enquiry as complete,this is important as whilst we are not funded bythe Cheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak and I have to account forthe information I send out. If you have anycomments good or bad and you wish to make themplease do so?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me.Jim TalbotTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. Police Constable 54 JamesGREENBorn. Circa 1837 Newport, Salop. (None of theearly records give a full date of birth)Date of Entry. 6th December 1867Date of Leaving. 24th February 1873Re-appointed. Not applicable.Final Date of Leaving. 24th February 1873How Discharged. Murdered on duty.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve Division, Chester.Other Postings and Dates. April 1868 NorthwichDivision.Miscellaneous Information. Religion Protestant,Height 5' 8", Age 30, Eyes Grey, Hair Sandy,Complexion Fresh, Build Proportional. Wife. MaryB.1845 Chrisleton, Chester. James W. B.1868.Chester. Joseph Watkin B.1871 Bradwall. (I haveattached a copy of his Baptism record; sadly Ihave been unable to find any further Baptismrecords1871 Census address. Middlewich Road, Bradwall,Cheshire. (Attached)Total service. 5 years 2 months 18 days.Died. 24th February 1873. Buried 2nd February 1873at Elworth, Sandbach. (See attachment re grave).Death recorded in volume 8a 1873 at CreweRegistrar's Office.The Generations NetworkPromotion. None.Misconduct. None.Weekly Pay. December 1867 20/-. May 1868 21/-.October 1871 22/-. March 1872 23/4d. September1872 24/6d. December 1872 25/8d.Annual Pay. Gratuity of £66.18s.4d paid to hiswidow. (Equivalent to 1 years pay)Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. May 1871Apprehension of Army Deserter Thomas Dodd of the84th Regiment of Foot. 20/- Reward awarded by theWar Office.As mentioned above the following are extracts fromGeneral Orders of 1873.Chief Constables Office, Chester 8th March 1873The late Constable Green has been Murdered whileengaged in the Special Execution of his duty,leaving a Widow in delicate health fromConsumption and three children, aged respectively5, 3 and 1 year, totally un-provided for, and theChief Constable feels that the CheshireConstabulary will be anxious to show their regardfor the memory of a brother Constable and theirdeep sympathy for the Widow and Children bycommencing a subscription, which the ChiefConstable has reason to know will soon be warmlytaken up by the officials and the generous publicof this County. Each Superintendent will thereforeopen a list at once with this object.Chief Constables Office, Chester 5th April 1873The Chief Constable has much pleasure in informingthe Cheshire Constabulary that he has received acommunication announcing the gratifying fact ofthe Lancashire Constabulary subscribing the amountof £34. 15s. 6d for the Widow and Children oftheir Murdered Comrade the late PC Green.The Following has been taken from the History ofthe Cheshire Constabulary "To the Best of OurSkill and Knowledge" (Chapter 6). You will alsonote that within this it states James was a nativeof Handbridge when in fact his police personalrecord and the 1871 Census shows him to have beenborn in Salop, Shropshire.In 1873, Constable James Green, of the CountyForce was murdered in circumstances indicatingextreme brutality. This is the only instance knownof the murder of a Cheshire police officer.Green, who was thirty years of age and a native ofHandbridge, Chester, had been a member of theCounty Force for a period of six years. He wasstationed at Bradwall near Sandbach serving underthe command of Superintendent Rowbottom ofMiddlewich and Inspector Hulme of Sandbach.On a Monday evening in late February, Greenexpressed his intention to spend some time inplain clothes keeping observation on a JamesBuckley who resided at Moss Green near the hamletof Elworth. Buckley, a farm worker, had a numberof previous convictions for larceny and wasbelieved to be still engaged in petty pilfering(it was later said that his cottage was "full ofstolen property").Inspector Hulme offered to provide a companion forGreen, but the latter declined the offer. Greenwas not seen again until the following Friday,when, after continual inquiries, his body, grosslyinjured, was recovered from the Trent / Merseycanal at Moss Bridge, a quarter of a mile fromBuckley's cottage. Medical evidence ascribed deathto the rupture of internal organs combined withtwenty-three cut wounds caused by a sharpinstrument about the head.Following inquiries by Superintendent Rowbottom,Buckley was arrested at a farm on which he wasworking at Elton. He was seen to be suffering frominjuries to the face, two black eyes, a bruisedforehead and a lacerated nose. These he accountedfor by saying he had been injured by branches of atree he had recently pruned.Search of the prisoner's cottage revealed a numberof blood-stained tools, a garden fork and otherthings. These were submitted for expertexamination to Professors Calvert and Williamsonof Owen's College, Manchester, and Dr. Taylor,Professor of the School of Medicine, Liverpool. Insubsequent evidence none of the professors wouldsay more than the stains on the implements were"animal blood stains". A Dr. Brown of Liverpoolsaid he could not swear positively that the bloodwas human. "It might or might not be pig's blood."Professor Williamson said "he could notdistinguish between human and pig's bloodespecially after it had become dry".After a two-day trial at the Assizes, Buckley wasacquitted by the jury after an absence of tenminutes.The case is an interesting example of the advanceof forensic science knowledge and methods from astate of almost total ignorance (in thisparticular field) to one by which, to-day, it ispossible to distinguish not only as between humanand base animal blood, but to distinguish asbetween one base animal and another.The case also brought out another point ofinterest. It was revealed that the PoliceCommittee of the Court of Quarter Sessions whilstdoing all it could legally do in paying to Green'swidow (with three children) a gratuity of £66 18s.4d. (equivalent to one year's pay), appealed tothe Magistrates of the County for subscriptions toa trust fund. Other collections brought in:Residents of Sandbach and district, £44; CheshireConstabulary, £52; Lancashire Constabulary, £34;what the Magistrates Subscribed is not on record.You may also like to be aware that at the mainPolice HQ at Winsford there is a Memorial Plaquededicated to James Green. James has not beenforgotten by the Cheshire Constabulary each yearhis name with other officers of the CheshireConstabulary who have fallen in the line of dutyare read out at the Force Memorial Day.James's name also appears on the Police NationalRoll of Honour website and this may be viewed athttp://www.policememorial.org.uk/index.php?page=cheshire-constabularyMuseum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington. WA1 1LQTel : 01606 36 3848/5803www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk/