Isle of Wight Constabulary helmet plate day

The Isle of Wight Constabulary was a local

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

force on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

History

The first separate police force on the island was set up in 1837 with the formation of the Newport Borough Police. The rest of the island was policed by the

Hampshire Constabulary The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in South East England.Hampshire Constabulary, 2012 Retrieved 27 April 2012 The force area inc ...

with the exception, from 1869, of Ryde, which had a borough force of its own, from 1869 to 1922. In 1890 the island was granted administrative county status under the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

. The Newport force area was enlarged and the force renamed to become the Isle of Wight Constabulary. The new force took over the area of the island that the Hampshire Constabulary had been responsible for (all of the island except Ryde and Newport). Many of the Hampshire officers transferred to the new force, the rest returned to the main land. Ryde Borough Police amalgamated with the Isle of Wight Constabulary in 1922, mainly due to the

Police Act 1919 {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) The Police Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c.46) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which set up an alternative dispute resolution system within UK labour law for collective disputes inv ...

. As a result of the Act officers were entitled to better pay and pensions and the borough could not afford this on their own. In 1943 the Isle of Wight Constabulary was amalgamated with Hampshire Constabulary as a war time measure. At that time there were 79 police officers in the Isle of Wight Constabulary.Stallion and Wall (2011) The British Police;Forces and Chief Officers 1829-2012 With the

Police Act 1946 The Police Act 1946 (1946 c.46) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the amalgamation of smaller borough police forces with county constabularies in England and Wales, allowed for the merger of county ...

in 1948 the Isle of Wight Constabulary was absorbed into the

to become the Hampshire Joint Police Force, so once again policing of the island was by Hampshire even though the Isle of Wight remained an independent county.

Chief Officers

Retired army Captain Harry George Adams-Connor was Chief Constable from 1899 until 1935. Captain Adams-Connor served in an Irish Regiment called the

Connaught Rangers The Connaught Rangers ("The Devil's Own") was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army formed by the amalgamation of the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) (which formed the ''1st Battalion'') and the 94th Regiment of Foot (wh ...

. The Chief Constable at the time of amalgamation with Hampshire in 1943 was Roy Spicer.

References

;General *Watt, I. A History of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary, *Lee, Peake,Stevens and Williams (2001) Policing Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, {{ISBN, 1-86077-196-3

External links

* Isle of Wight Policing Toda
Official website
History of the Isle of Wight Defunct police forces of England

History

Chief Officers

See also

References

External links