Whilst checking the Public Record Office
website, and in particular the demonstration
pages for the 1901 census, my attention was
caught by data taken from the 1891 census for
Norfolk which the PRO was using to promote its
service; in this they appear to have been only
too successful!
The name George Blanch jogged my memory; I had
seen this name whilst indexing the police records
at Sulhamstead (see the March edition of the
Berkshire Family Historian). George's family had
been used as an example to illustrate the use of
the census records; they lived at Hockering, a
small village west of Norwich. George had joined
the Reading Police in January 1899 aged 23,
giving his place of residence as Morton - which
is near Hockering. In the 1891 census his age is
given as 15, which ties up well.
In fact quite a few recruits to the Reading
Police came from Norfolk, and for some reason
several came from County Limerick in Ireland,
perhaps word of mouth comes into play here with
recruits extolling the quality of life in the
force when writing home? I have now enlarged the
index of the Police records to 350 names by
extending it up to the year 1902; a task for the
future is to try to take it back to the
foundation of the Force in 1836.
with any queries
)