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Superiority in Strength: The Physique of Officers in Early Policing

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Wages were low and employment was insecure.Depressions in trade left families in debt, wherestarvation was a real danger.

Able-bodied men wandered over the countrysidesearching for work, and gravitated towards the ironand mining towns of South Wales.

However, some were as willing to commit crime asthey were to work, just to survive.

The number of poor people only increased ashundreds of families driven from Ireland by the potatofamines came to Wales to seek work and sustenance.

There wasn’t enough work for everyone, and peoplewere forced to live in squalid conditions. They foundshelter in hovels, threw up shacks or went to theverminous low lodging houses that sprang up inevery town.

In his report of December 1842, Captain Napier said:

“The County is infested with vagrants....and inconsequence of this influx the low lodginghouses have been crowded to excess. In roomsof not more than 12 feet square sometimessleep indiscriminately four and twenty men,women and children, naked on straw, theirclothes being detained for security of rent.

“In such conditions, brutality thrived, andbrutishness was displayed in work and play.In the towns the worthless and lawless, aptlydescribed by the Vagrancy Act as the “idle anddisorderly,” “the rogues and vagabonds,” andthe “incorrigible rogues,” tended to herdtogether and to form gangs for mutualprotection and for planned mob lawlessness.Soon they had sections of the town tothemselves, for when they moved in, innumbers, local conditions deteriorated somuch that respectable inhabitants soonmoved elsewhere.”

Superiority in Strength: The Physique of Officers in Early Policing

Life was tough for the labouring classes in the 19th century, particularly inthe developing industrial towns.

Unknown Police Officer in the Late 19th Century.He displays the Kind of Physique sought after by Policeforces of the era

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The lodgers left these ‘dens of iniquity’ to prey onthe better parts of the town. It was very dangerousfor someone who wasn’t a criminal to venture intothese dens, which were known as ‘China’ in Merthyr.The reigning gangster was known as the ‘Emperor’and his partner was the ‘Empress’.

As well as the people flocking to the county to seekwork, workers on the railway lines, known as‘Navvies’, added to the growing population.

Strong, inured to hardship and almost always drunkoutside of work, the Navvies waged constant battleswith the locals who resented them taking up localemployment.

Gang CultureThe true hallmarks of masculinity in this periodwere stamped by a willingness to fight (takingpart in a ‘rough-house’), and heavy drinking.

Fighting wasn’t always the result of a disagreement orhostility; it was considered healthy exercise and thewinning men were rewarded with adulation.

The heroes of the time were the strongest men, andtheir reputation stopped them being targeted bythugs.

The leaders of the criminal gangs were always menof immense physique and a bullying character. Theyonly stayed in charge as long as they could frighten ordefeat anyone who challenged their leadership.

Paid police officers were the first real challenge tothese gangs and reigning bullies.

However, ordinary working men didn’t have afavourable view of officers, simply because theyinterfered with the rough pleasures of the era, suchas heavy drinking.

Unfortunately, this meant that officers rarely hadassistance from the public during difficult incidents,and were left to deal with fights single-handedly.

The accepted code was that in any fight, the issuewas between the contestants, and outsidersshouldn’t interfere and sway the result.

When county police forces were introduced in 1839,the minimum height standard for officers was set at5ft 7ins by the Home Office.

However, it soon became apparent that officersneeded to be superior in height, build and courage inorder to fulfil their duties competently. It was notenough to be above the average in height andstrength; an officer had to be considered a giant tocommand respect, or to have a chance of survival inthe more turbulent areas.

Although records of ‘vital statistics’ are not available,it is evident that Glamorgan Constabulary ChiefConstable Captain Napier set a high physicalstandard for members of his force; particularly thosedue to serve in Merthyr, Dowlais and Aberdare.

In a court martial, Captain Napier threatened to senda man from a rural district to Merthyr, where hewould be: “knocked about a bit.”

Superintendents frequently wrote to the ChiefConstable to request that the high recruitmentstandards be maintained. Although it was difficult torecruit suitable men, smaller men were of no use!

The Physiques of the FirstGlamorgan OfficersThe physiques of the first serving officers of theGlamorgan Constabulary were documentedduring the period.

In 1847, a newspaper reported the pillars of an oldchapel in Merthyr collapsing under the weight of the“redoubtable” Sergeant Hume.

Another officer, Sergeant William Jenkins, was able tosingle-handedly rescue Chief Constable CaptainNapier and a Swansea constable when they werebeaten down in an attack at a farm house by fourmen and two women.

Sergeant Thomas Thomas (PC 28 in 1841) wasdescribed in 1850 as a “very big man.”

Also, an encounter in 1842 between MerthyrSergeant Davies and Shoni Scubor Fawr, a stronglocal bully, resulted in Sergeant Davies overpoweringShoni without resorting to back-up. After thisincident Fawr left Merthyr, perhaps due to shame.

The following year he was involved in the RebeccaRiots in the west, and was then transported for hisinvolvement in the murder of an old woman.

Room at Cwm Cille Fach Farm where Captain Napierwas attacked

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The below incident reports show the willingness ofpolice officers to meet force with force, even withthe odds stacked against them…

January 1842:

“At the police court three men were chargedwith being drunk and fighting in a mobamounting to 200 congregated inPonstorehouse, among whom some well-knownblackguards from that nest of inequity, theCellary. They were also charged, with others,with assaulting a police constable and rescuinga prisoner from his custody. Another man wascharged with inciting the mob to throw stonesat the constable.”

February 1842:

“Three men were charged with committing amost savage attack, with a mob, on SergeantDawkins and PC William Fair, at Dowlais. Whenthe Sergeant attempted to arrest one man, themob, about 150 strong, commenced an attackon the officers by throwing stones. SergeantDawkins was knocked down by a stone and theprisoner made a savage attack on him by bitinga part of his nose nearly off. The stones weredescribed by witnesses as falling like a showerof hailstones.”

March 1842:

“Superintendent Davies, after the case hadbeen heard, addressed the magistrates inconnection with the threats directed againstthe police by the bullies of the town and saidthat he wished to assure these bullies andblackguards that he and his men were not a lotof schoolboys to be frightened by such, andwere ready to accept the challenge at any time.”

Any challenge to a police officer from a criminal wasaccepted as personal. If an officer refused to accept afight, it would have weakened the authority andprestige of the force.

However, the challenge had to be met on equalterms, man to man.

In November 1847, officers at Aberdare PoliceStation were challenged by a man named RichardHackford.It became the duty of Sergeant Sadler, as the man incharge of that station, to accept the challenge.

Sergeant Sadler was originally from Middlesex andjoined the Glamorgan Constabulary in Merthyr in July

1842. He was made Sergeant of Aberdare in March1845, and was promoted to Superintendent ofBridgend in January 1849.

Sadler served in Bridgend until January 1877. Duringhis career, he made a number of headline arrests andreceived a sum of monetary awards.

On this occasion, a £5 reward for detaining thechallenger was available, which may have swayed himto accept!

Richard Hackford, also known as ‘Hereford Dick’,was a mighty man who proudly boasted that it tooksix police officers to arrest him.

He escaped from custody at Hereford prisonthrough sheer physical strength, and went toHirwaun to work. He proclaimed that he wasperfectly safe in Hirwaun because there weren’tenough police officers in the neighbourhood to takehim back to custody.

At that time, there was only one constable inHirwaun and one sergeant and constable in Aberdare.

The Hereford Times told the story of whathappened next:

“The recollection of the escape of Richard Hackfordfrom Hereford Gaol is doubtless, fresh in thememory of many of the readers of the “HerefordTimes.” We have now to lay before the public anaccount of his recapture which will confer long andlasting honour on the determined spirit and

Richard Hackford, alias "Hereford Dick"

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indomitable courage of a police officer. £5 wasoffered by Mr Kettle, governor of the Gaol, for therecapture of Hackford. Strange to say, however,the offer of this reward had not the desired effectuntil Friday last, almost 7 months after his escape.Hackford is a man who few, single-handed, woulddare to attack, especially in the neighbourhood ofhis late residence where he was much dreaded anddeemed invincible.

Hackford is in the vigour of his manhood, beingabout 32 years of age, upwards of 5ft 10 ins inheight, possessed of great muscle and wonderfulstrength. So much for Hackford.

Now a word or two about his gallant capturer, whofor many a day will bear evidential tokens of “hotwork”, engaged in while attempting and effectingthe capture of his formidable opponent. RichardSadler is a young man, about 28 years of age, ofabout Hackford's height but more slenderly built.He has, however, a great deal of bone and muscleand doubtless great lasting strength, which in fact,he must possess to have enabled him to stand thecontest he did, with his renowned and formidablefoe.

For several days, Sadler, having read a descriptionof his person, had become aware that Hackfordwas in the neighbourhood of Aberdare, and at aquarter past 5 o’clock on Friday morning, the 20thNovember, was on the look-out for him at HirwaunCommon, on which common Hackford wasemployed as a “patchman,” one we understand,who removes the surface oil for the operations of aminer.

The gallant Sergeant of Aberdare was all alone atthat hour of the morning, for he scorned to takeanyone with him to assist him, being determined togain all the laurels and all the profits of capture forhimself. Not long had the gallant Sergeant been onthe Common where he saw Hackford, in companywith several other men who were employed in thesame work. The Sergeant immediately went up toHackford and told him he was his prisoner, whenHackford begged of the Sergeant to let him go,which was of course a “no-go.” With the Sergeant,Hackford then walked quietly for a few yards, whenhe endeavoured to kick up the Sergeant's heels, andin return the Sergeant knocked him down with hisfist.

A desperate encounter with alternate success thenensued between the two. The Sergeant then calledupon one of Hackford's companions, who werelooking on, to assist him, instead of which one fellow

took the staff from the Sergeant's pocket andhanded it over to Hackford, who then commencedbeating the Sergeant most unmercifully upon thehead, body and legs with his own staff, scoring hishead frightfully. The Sergeant at length regainedpossession of his staff by throwing Hackford downand wrestling it from him, beat him about the headuntil he was almost insensible.

Hackford recovered a little and pulled out of hispocket a large clasp knife with which he stabbed atand cut the head of the Sergeant in a dreadfulmanner, to which we can testify having seen thewounds. The Sergeant then used all his efforts totake the knife from him, on which Hackford threwit to one of his companions. The combatants tookfresh breath and then fought again with reneweddesperation till at length the Sergeant succeeded inplacing one of the handbolts on one of theprisoner's wrists.

This having been done a young man came by whoassisted the officer to place the bolts on the otherwrist, and then he was soon conveyed to the StationHouse at Aberdare, and thence his gallant captorbrought him to Hereford at about quarter past twoon Saturday morning, when we dare say Mr Kettlereceived his old acquaintance with great hospitality,and very cheerfully handed the reward to thegallant captor.

We understand that in addition to the £5 given forthe recapture of the prisoner by Mr Kettle, asubscription was entered into at the Black SwanHotel in this City on Saturday evening last, when£5 more was collected for this gallant fellow.”

Hackford engaged in combat with an unknown man

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Notes

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