The Trust is also aware of fire and police service-related records held in the following archives:
Local Resources:
The Hampshire Record Office, Sussex Street, Winchester
Hampshire Archives and Local Studies | Hampshire County Council (hants.gov.uk)
An extensive range of records that refer to various Parish, Rural, Borough and City Councils of the past, including fire brigades operated by those organisations prior to August 1941 and police forces operated since 1832. An online search facility will advise researchers what records are available.
The Southampton Archives
The Reading Room (southampton.gov.uk)
A range of records related to the Southampton Fire Brigade, Southampton County Borough Police and Southampton City Police. Fire records are mostly via the records of the Fire Brigade Committee and Chief Fire Officer Reports, with a break during the period of the national Fire Service, august 1941 to April 1948 and, until April 1974. Police records are via Watch Committee minutes as well as personnel records of police officers.
The Portsmouth History Centre
A range of records related to the Portsmouth Fire Brigade and Portsmouth City Police. Fire records are mostly via the records of the controlling committees Brigade and reports.
Researchers should note that Portsmouth was one of the few ‘Police Fire Brigades’ in the UK and, such an arrangement existed until August 1941, then returning to the control of a Chief Fire Officer following the demise of the National Fire Service in April 1948 and until April 1974. Because of this some earlier records may be found under Police reporting lines.
Also potentially at the following locations:
Christopher Tower Library, New Forest Centre, Lyndhurst, Hants
https://www.newforestheritage.org.uk/library
The Red House Museum, Quay Road, Christchurch, Dorset
Red House Museum and Gardens | Hampshire Cultural Trust (hampshireculture.org.uk)
(Christchurch was part of Hampshire prior to April 1974)
Christchurch History Society
HOME | CHS Website Final (historychristchurch.org.uk)
Bournemouth – Part of Hampshire until April 1974
Dorset History Centre (Archives) – Dorset Council
St Barbe Museum, New Street, Lymington
National Resources:
The National Archives
A range of official documents and images available via an extensive search facility.
The Leyland Society
Information related to Leyland vehicles, including those used as fire engines.
The Dennis Archives
Dennis drawings and photographs – Surrey County Council (surreycc.gov.uk)
Information and photographs related to Dennis fire engines and other associated equipment, held within the Surrey History Centre
The British Newspaper Archive
Home | Search the archive | British Newspaper Archive
An extensive archive of old newspapers which can reveal much information about police and fire heritage and officers as well as information about incidents and events.
Welsh Newspapers Online
Welsh Newspapers Online – Home (library.wales)
Similar to the British Newspaper Archive but focussed more on information found in the newspapers of Wales.
The National Library of Scotland
Newspapers | National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)
Similar to the British Newspaper Archive but focussed more on information found in the newspapers of Scotland.
The British Library
A range of books and magazines which can prove useful to fire or police related research.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission | CWGC
A record of those who died as a result of injuries attributed to enemy action. As well as listing members of ‘the Civilian Services’, this can be a useful resource of information relative to members the fire and police services who went into military service and died as a result of those duties
The Firefighters Memorial Trust
Records of members of the fire service who have died in the course of their duties dating back to the 1700s
Home (firefightersmemorial.org.uk)
The Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museums (iwm.org.uk)
The IWM has a range of information and images related to the fire and police service during wartime.
The London Metropolitan Archives
London Metropolitan Archives – City of London
The LMA can also be a useful source of information for researchers, even though it is mostly focused on London, there are useful signposting resources and information which applied to all authorities.
The Fire Heritage Network UK
The Fire Heritage Network UK is a network of individual organisations, each having a focus on fire heritage or having within their collections items related to fire heritage and who, amongst their membership have a vast knowledge fire heritage related subjects.
The Police Memorial Trust
Set up by Michael Winner its objectives are the promotion of good citizenship through the provision and maintenance of Memorials to Police Officers and Police Staff killed in the execution of their hazardous duty, and subject thereto to relieve the need of Police Officers and Police Staff or their dependants arising from the special hazards of Police duty.
Police Remembrance Trust
The Trust maintains a searchable database of over 5,000 British police officers who have been killed or died on duty or as a result of duty.
Police History Society
The Police History Society is a registered charity, the aim of which is to educate the public in police history. They provide a network for anyone interested in police history, encourage the preservation of historical items on policing, and allow public access to them. Their activities include regular messages of interest, a quarterly newsletter and an annual Journal publishing original research.
Hampshire Constabulary History Society
The Society is run by volunteers and maintains an extensive collection of documents, artefacts and photographs. They also have comprehensive records of officers who served with:
Winchester City Police
Isle of Wight Constabulary
Southampton County Borough Police (later Southampton City Police)
Portsmouth City Police
Hampshire Constabulary
Hampshire Constabulary History Society
Notes:
- There are numerous town, city and county record offices/local history archives which contain local information related to fire and police heritage, in particular records of individual fire brigades which existed prior to the formation of the NFS in 1941 and, where a County Borough, City or a County was a designated ‘Fire Authority’, the records of the ‘fire brigade committee’ etc. and ‘Chief Fire Officer Reports’ can be a great source of information. Many will hold Watch Committee records which are a rich source of material relating to the running of police forces.
- Unlike with records related to military service, researchers will be disappointed to learn that there are no surviving central personnel records for the NFS or for AFS (both eras). Many local records over the years and through many organisational mergers or amalgamations, have been lost or were destroyed. Many existing fire and rescue service will not share any historical personnel records that they hold due to their concerns related to ‘data protection’.
- For the WW2 period, researchers can often find information in local record offices related to the organisation of fire brigades of the time and the creation of the WW2-era AFS. Researchers should focus on the period 1937 to 1941 for the AFS, but also seek records with titles such as ARP, Air Raid Precautions, War Committee, Civil defence, Emergency Committee etc, as the responsibilities in this era were very mixed depending on the size and status of the local authority.
- Fire Brigades prior to the ‘Fire Brigades Act 1938, could have been under the responsibility of committees by different name that might be expected, such as the ‘Lighting and Watch Committee’ or the ‘Watch Committee’ or in some cases, the Police. Researchers need to establish first who had responsibility, and this was very varied depending on the size of the authority.
- From 18 August 1941 until 1 April 1948 the National Fire Service, under the direct control of the Home Office, provided the firefighting resources across the UK, divided into Fire Force Areas, under the direction of a Fire Force Commander, structured into the ‘Civil Defence Regions’ in existence at the time. Hampshire was covered by two Fire Forces. Number 14 FF covered the eastern side of the County, including Portsmouth and also the Isle of Wight. Number 16 FF covered the western side of the county, including Southampton, Bournemouth (then part of Hampshire, and the whole of the county of Dorset.
- There were two separate periods of the Auxiliary Fire Service (‘AFS’) – 1938 until 18 August 1941 and again during the ‘Cold War’ period of November 1949 until April 1968.
- The National Archives at Kew is an amazing resource of official documents and here will be found a great deal of information about the creation and operation of both the AFS and the NFS, but some information may run across many Government Department files and so the researcher needs to think carefully and widely about research routes. Some pre-visit research is possible via their extensive online catalogue. But again, we point out that even the National Archives does not hold personnel records for the fire service. There are however extensive records related to the nominations and award of recognition for bravery by members of the fire service and civil defence organisations, going back to the early 1900s.
- Researchers may also find useful guidance under the ‘Research’ tab on this site.
- This Trust will always welcome being advised of other useful sources of information related to either Fire or Police heritage.
- This Trust will also always welcome any donations to its archive collection. Even the smallest of document may be the vital missing part of a jigsaw of information. Photographs are particularly welcomed. Sadly, there are many examples where important parts of history are disposed of because their heritage value is not recognised, particularly when family clear belongings after the sad loss of a relative.