Captain William Stratton Prince (18 April 1824 – 15 November 1881) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer, Chief Constable of Toronto (1859–1873) and the first

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

of the

Toronto Central Prison The Toronto Central Prison, also known as the Central Prison, Central Prison for Men, and more colloquially as The Toronto Jail (the third of four Toronto area jails to be given that nickname) was a prison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a 33 ...

(1873-1881). As chief, Prince oversaw the militarization of the Toronto police. Prince was born in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, the son of Colonel John Prince, and his wife, Mary Ann Millington. His father was an English barrister who emigrated to Canada in 1833 and became a member of the legislative assembly, a colonel in the militia, businessman and ultimately a judge. William Prince enlisted in the British Army in 1837 and rose to the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He fought in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

in 1854, returned to Canada in 1856 and was appointed Chief Constable of the

Toronto Police Department The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

in 1859. Prince's predecessor, Samuel Sherwood, was fired along with the entire police force as the result of lack of discipline, corruption and rioting. Half of the police force was re-hired, most of them younger recruits. Under Prince, the police were organized under military discipline to the extent that unmarried constables were required to be housed in special

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

and needed approval to marry. In 1872, Prince introduced a timed beat system in which officers were to follow minute by minute schedules when walking their beat. The police force of 60 threatened to go on strike and were fired as a result. When officers asked for their jobs back, 18 were refused. Police were required to participate in

drill A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to ...

s three times a week but were also required to be moderate in their use of force in contrast to abuses that had occurred previously. Prince resigned as chief constable in 1873 in order to become the first warden of the new Toronto Central Prison at King and Strachan Streets. Imposing military discipline, the prison became known for its brutality with stories of prisoners being beaten to death and buried on the prison grounds. In 1880, Prince ordered that an American prisoner be

flogged Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, Birching, rods, Switch (rod), switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging ...

nearly to death. The American embassy in Ottawa complained and the

Attorney-General of Ontario The Attorney General of Ontario is the chief legal adviser to His Majesty the King in Right of Ontario and, by extension, the Government of Ontario. The Attorney General is a senior member of the Executive Council of Ontario (the cabinet) and ...

ordered, in 1881, that the brutality stop and that flogging not occur without his permission. Prince resigned the same month and took a position as

registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the sen ...

of Wellington County. He died in 1882 of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

caused by

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, William Stratton 1824 births 1881 deaths People from Cheltenham British Army personnel of the Crimean War English emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada Toronto police chiefs Canadian prison officials