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Policeman's Lot


At one time members of the Dorset Constabulary were subject to regulations that today would not be acceptable and possibly illegal. A Dorset police constable could not marry without obtaining the permission of the Chief Constable, Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Symes Cox. He was worried that so many of his constables were married men that he issued the following instruction.

‘The number of married police constables being out of all reasonable proportion to the total strength of the Force so much as to be increasingly inconvenient to the efficient working of the police, No constable for the future will be allowed to marry until he has served at least twelve months and then permission will not be granted until he satisfies the Chief Constable he has saved a sufficient sum of money to enable him to start in life with respectability as a married man.’ (Dorset Constabulary General Orders – August 1864)

When the Force had been established in 1856, it had been determined, unless there were special circumstances, that no new entrant should be under 22 or over 35 years, under 5ft 8inches in height or have more than two children dependent on him for support. Weekly pay for a constable 1st class was set at seventeen shillings & sixpence (87.5p). Constables were required to wear their uniforms at all times even to Church which they were required to attend at least once on a Sunday.

(Source: Policing Victorian Dorset by Maurice Hann (1989)

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