Charles Rafter
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Sir Charles Haughton Rafter (1860 – 23 August 1935) was a British police officer who served as Chief Constable of the
Birmingham City Police Birmingham City Police was the police service responsible for general policing in the city of Birmingham from 1839 to 1974. The force was established by a special Act of Parliament in 1839, and was amalgamated as of 1 April 1974 with the West M ...
from 1899 until his death in 1935.


Early life and education

Rafter was born in Belfast, the son of William Pearse Rafter (died 1892), a linen merchant, and his wife Elizabeth (née Manning). In September 1870 Rafter entered the
Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...
. He later studied at the Queen's University of Ireland and the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
.


Royal Irish Constabulary

He came top of the entrance examinations for the
Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...
, which he joined as a gentleman cadet in 1882. His first duty was to patrol
Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tre ...
, Dublin, nightly, shortly after the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the chief secretary of Ireland, and his under-secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, by Irish republican nationalists. He was later promoted to district inspector, and served for sixteen years, being quartered at various times in
Woodford, County Galway Woodford () is a village in the south-east of County Galway, Ireland. It is situated between the River Shannon and the Slieve Aughty mountains. History The village's industrial history is indicated by a variant of its Irish name, ''Gráig na ...
,
Ballinrobe Ballinrobe () is a town in County Mayo in Ireland. It is located on the River Robe, which empties into Lough Mask two kilometres to the west. As of the 2016 census, the population was 2,786. History Foundation and development Ballinrobe is c ...
, County Mayo,
Tipperary Town Tipperary Town (; ) is a town and a civil parish in County Tipperary, Ireland. Its population was 4,979 at the 2016 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical baron ...
,
County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...
, and
Boyle, County Roscommon Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gar ...
. On 13 January 1885, he married Olivia Lucinda (1853–1914), daughter of Arthur Nugent JP, of
Crannagh Crannagh (), sometimes written Cranagh or Granagh, is a Barony (Ireland), barony in the north western part of County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is one of 12 baronies in County Kilkenny. The size of the barony is . There are ...
, County Galway.


Appointment as Chief Constable of Birmingham

In July 1899, Rafter was one of fifty candidates who applied to succeed Joseph Farndale as chief constable of Birmingham. Of the eight short-listed candidates for interview, only Rafter appeared in uniform. This impressed the city's
watch committee In England and Wales, watch committees were the local government bodies which oversaw policing from 1835 until, in some areas, 1968. Establishment The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 required each borough to establish a "watch committee" and to ...
, which unanimously decided to appoint him with a salary of £800. His age was given as forty-two. Rafter was recommended to the Birmingham watch committee as "skilled in the preservation or restoration of peace in troubled districts where party feeling runs high". This ability was tested early in his time at Birmingham, when the radical Welsh MP
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...
visited the city on 18 December 1901, at the invitation of the Birmingham Liberal Association, to deliver a speech at the town hall critical of the government's conduct during the South African War. Birmingham was the
Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a politic ...
stronghold of
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...
, the colonial secretary associated with the war policy, and Rafter anticipated trouble. He ordered 400 officers on duty within the town hall and neighbourhood. A large crowd, armed with stones, brick-ends, and other missiles, stormed the town hall and smashed windows and street lamps in Victoria Square; Rafter personally escorted Lloyd George from the platform to a secure room underneath, from which he enabled the future prime minister to get away safely, disguised, according to some reports, as a police officer. During the melee, a young man, Harold Ernest Curtin, was killed after being struck on the head with a police baton; the coroner's jury returned a verdict of manslaughter by an unknown police constable. A watch committee inquiry absolved Rafter of any blame in the affair.


Expansion of the force

When Rafter was appointed, there were 700 members of the Birmingham force, or one officer for every 654 people, manning fourteen police stations. The annual report of the inspectorate of constabulary that year criticised the Birmingham force for being under strength by 200 officers. In February 1901, Rafter convinced the watch committee to immediately recruit an additional 100 men with an additional annual incremental rise of 20 men for the ensuing six years. Upon his death the force numbered 1,587, or one officer for every 632 people, manning more than 64 stations. Rafter managed the Birmingham police force during a period of transition. The city's boundaries were extended in 1911 to incorporate the outlying suburbs of
Aston Manor Aston Manor was a local government district of Warwickshire in what is now northern Birmingham, from the 19th century to 1911, when it was added to Birmingham. The Aston Manor Local Board of Health was formed in 1869, from part of the ancient par ...
,
Erdington Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Warwickshire and located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutton Coldfield. It was also a council constituency, managed by its o ...
, Handsworth,
Acocks Green Acocks Green is an area and ward of southeast Birmingham, England. It is named after the Acock family, who built a large house there in 1370. Acocks Green is one of four wards making up Yardley formal district. It is occasionally spelled "Acoc ...
, Yardley,
King's Norton Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward within the Government of Birmingham, Engl ...
, and
Northfield Northfield may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland * Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland * Northfield, Birmingham, England * Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England United States * Northfield, Connec ...
. The creation of Greater Birmingham, as it was known, trebled the city's acreage to 43,000 acres and increased its population from 523,000 to 840,000, creating new challenges for policing such a large urban area. Rafter formed a large branch of mounted officers attached to several of the outlying districts. Members of county police forces in these districts (214 men) were amalgamated with the Birmingham police. New police stations were built in
Nechells Nechells is a district ward in central Birmingham, England, whose population in 2011 was 33,957. It is also a ward within the formal district of Ladywood. Nechells local government ward includes areas, for example parts of Birmingham city centr ...
,
Bordesley Green Bordesley Green is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England about two miles east of the city centre. It also contains a road of the same name. It is in the Bordesley Green Ward which also covers some of Small Heath. Heartlands Hospital is l ...
, and Digbeth, among other districts; existing stations were substantially enlarged to accommodate the new intake of policemen; and the force invested heavily in subsidised housing for its officers. Upon Rafter's death, the gross capital debt on police stations and housing in the city was almost £400,000, a large proportion of which had been borrowed in 1924 to buy land in Steelhouse Lane for the development of a new central station, which was officially opened in December 1933. A citywide network of pillar-post telephones was also installed to facilitate greater communication between the police and members of the public. This was later augmented by a motor patrol fleet and a network of police boxes. In addition to its patrol duties the force's transport department in Duke Street was also responsible for the city's ambulances, prison vans, and mortuary.


Modernisation of education and training

Rafter was a noted moderniser of the service. One of his first acts was to introduce educational classes for the rank-and-file. At first, only Birmingham police officers were eligible to attend, but Rafter soon opened the school to visiting officers, offering a combination of physical and mental education to prepare probationary constables for the rigours of police work. The curriculum included criminal law and procedure, police duties, arithmetic, English composition, dictation, gymnastics, swimming, drill, first aid, and practical tips for dealing with the public. Only with sustained training could officers perform their principal duty, which, as he liked to remind people, was 'the prevention of crime'. Potential recruits were introduced to this educational regime the moment they arrived for interview: all of the 5000 candidates personally interviewed by Rafter between 1899 and 1928 heard his lecture 'Advice to police officers'. As he noted in his evidence to the Royal Commission on Police Powers and Procedure in 1928, the selection of "proper candidates for the Police Service...is a duty that cannot be adequately discharged by subordinates". The Digbeth Police Training School, as it became known from 1913, was the leading educational institution for police officers in the country, and, when Rafter advocated establishing a national police school in 1918, he confidently urged the Home Office to use his school as a model of good practice. From 1918, he used his influence on the Chief Constables' Association to press for greater uniformity and professionalism in police training. With Rafter's encouragement, the rugby-playing assistant chief constable who was his heir apparent from 1918,
Cecil Moriarty Cecil Charles Hudson Moriarty, (1877–1958) was an Irish-born British police officer and Irish rugby international. He won one cap against Wales in 1899. He served as Chief Constable of the Birmingham City Police from 1935 to 1941, and his ma ...
, wrote and revised a set of model instructions for police, which became a national standard, albeit an unofficial one.


Women police

Rafter was also one of the first chief constables to employ women in the service, first (and conventionally) as police matrons to look after female prisoners and juveniles, before recruiting female volunteers to patrol the city's parks and public spaces during the First World War. A women's police department was formed in June 1917 to deal with cases of indecent exposure, sexual assault, carnal knowledge, attempted suicide, obscene language, and shoplifting. A hostel for young women was opened on Newton Street in the following year with Rafter's sanction. In 1929 the Royal Commission on Police Powers and Procedure praised the force for pioneering the appointment of women police constables. In his evidence to the commission, Rafter had outlined the preventative work of the women police and also noted that they protected male officers from the sort of complaints "readily and glibly made" by "the class of women who usually come into Police custody". By 1935, the women's police department consisted of seventeen female officers, including uniformed and plain-clothes women constables and a woman enquiry officer attached to the detective department, and had its own office in Steelhouse Lane, adjoining the new central station.


Personal life

Although Rafter was a strict disciplinarian, summarily dismissing 107 striking policemen after the national police strike in 1919, he was equally interested in police welfare. A long-distance runner in his youth, he encouraged his men to pursue all forms of rational leisure, including sport, reading, and music. He started an annual police sports' day, which was open to public spectators, and initiated inter-divisional competitions to encourage healthy rivalry among his men. He also started an annual police children's party, at which he could be seen dressed as Father Christmas. Rafter was a lover of music, and was keenly interested in the city police band (which was conducted for a time by
Sir Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...
) and the Municipal Officers' Guild Choir. Apparently he kept a flute in his office drawer, which he would sometimes pull out to entertain visitors. He was also a keen horticulturalist and spent much of his later leisure time cultivating hothouse plants and flowers at his Birmingham home, Elmley Lodge, Old Church Road, Harborne. After the death of his first wife, he married, on 21 September 1916 in Plymouth, Catherine (born 1882/3), daughter of Denis Griffin, a naval pensioner.


Honours and awards

Rafter's accomplishments were first recognised in July 1910 with the conferment of the
King's Police Medal The King's Police Medal (KPM) is awarded to police in the United Kingdom for gallantry or distinguished service. It was also formerly awarded within the wider British Empire, including Commonwealth countries, most of which now have their own hono ...
(KPM), presented by the King at
Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marl ...
on 2 July,Court Circular, ''The Times'', 4 July 1910 for "a specially distinguished record of administrative service, success in organising his police force, and for special services in dealing with widespread outbreaks of public disorder". He was the first city or borough chief constable to receive the award. He was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1927 Birthday Honours. He was appointed an officer of the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
in 1931."Order of St. John of Jerusalem", ''The Times'', 3 January 1931 A 1931 portrait photograph, by
Walter Stoneman Walter Ernest Stoneman (6 April 1876 – 14 May 1958) was an English portrait photographer who took many photographs for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. Career as a photographer Stoneman was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 6 ...
is on the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.


Later career and death

When he had completed twenty-five years' service as chief constable, his men presented him with a life-size portrait of himself. Latterly there were moves to force his retirement, and questions were raised both about his age and mental and physical capacity. His appointment had pre-dated legislation on police pensions in 1921 and he was unaffected by its provisions for compulsory retirement. The Birmingham watch committee and the home secretary permitted him to continue in office until his death. Rafter died at his holiday home, Dennison Hall in Galway, on 23 August 1935, aged 75. One of the longest serving chief constables in the United Kingdom, Rafter was in the police service for almost fifty-three years. His memorial service at St Martin's parish church in Birmingham's Bull Ring attracted a large congregation of prominent citizens and police officers. On the journey to
St Peter's Church, Harborne Saint Peter's is the ancient parish church of Harborne, Birmingham, England. Background There has been a church on the site since Saxon times and St Chad is even thought to have preached there. The base of an early preaching cross was found in ...
, where his body was interred, the streets were lined by between 800 and 1,000 regular and special constables, the line of blue uniforms being described as "the most impressive guard-of-honour that has ever been seen in Birmingham".


Family

Rafter's two sons, Charles Rafter and William Pearce Houghton 'Robin' Rafter, were both officers with the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
. Charles was a pilot officer with 214 Squadron, flying Wellington bombers, and was killed after crashing into a hangar on take-of at
RAF Stradishall Royal Air Force Stradishall or more simply RAF Stradishall is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Haverhill, Suffolk and south west of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. Part of the site remains in use as Stradishall Traini ...
on 11 October 1940. He was buried next to his father. Robin had volunteered to fly fighter aircraft in the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
, having previously flown army co-operation aircraft. He was wounded in action while flying for the first time with 603 Squadron against German fighters on 5 September 1940. After convalescence and attending the funeral of his brother he returned to service, on his next flight he crashed while returning to
RAF Hornchurch Royal Air Force Hornchurch or RAF Hornchurch is a former Royal Air Force Royal Air Force station, sector station in the parish of Hornchurch, Essex (now the London Borough of Havering in Greater London), located to the southeast of Romford. The a ...
on 29 November 1940. He was buried next to his father and brother. There was also an elder daughter, Elizabeth.


Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafter, Charles 1860 births 1935 deaths Police officers from Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of the University of London Royal Irish Constabulary officers British Chief Constables Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Northern Irish recipients of the Queen's Police Medal People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution Birmingham City Police