Remembering the police of World War Two

On May 8, 1945, thousands of people took to the streets of Scotland to celebrate the end of the Second World War.

As bonfires were lit and people gathered in towns and villages across Scotland, extra police were called in to keep the peace.

In Glasgow, officers were so concerned about the risk of fires and disorder, they spent days patrolling the city, seizing firewood and taking it back to the city’s central police office for safekeeping.

For many of those officers, it was the final act of the long and often tragic story of their role in the conflict.

Police had a critical role in the war. From serving on the front line to carrying out vital work at home, police in every corner of Scotland played a direct role in how the war developed – ultimately leading to VE Day in May 1945.

“Police aren’t at the forefront of people’s minds when you say World War Two,” Inspector Claire Smith of the Banff community policing team tells 1919.

She is leading work to raise awareness of the stories and heroics of police during the conflict with a new exhibition in Inverurie.

“I found it moving and fascinating to uncover these stories,” she adds. “The people who couldn’t go to war carried out essential war work. It is essential that we recognise them.”

In the Scottish Police Federation office in Aberdeen, a carefully-tended plaque commemorates six police officers from north-east forces killed during the conflict.

Their names are just a few of the hundreds of officers who went to fight as soldiers and never came home.

A similar plaque is cared for in the Glasgow Police Museum, paying tribute to 30 men killed during the war.

“Police carried out essential war work. It is essential that we recognise them”

Inspector Claire Smith

When war was declared in 1939, officers were among those called up to join the action as soldiers – and hundreds never returned from the front.

“They were a young, fit, workforce,” explains historian Professor Mary Fraser from the University of Glasgow. “They were called to service in huge numbers”.

In Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest – and oldest – force, 339 members of the police went to fight. Around ten per cent of them never returned.

They include Chief Superintendent Alexander McGarvey, who was awarded the George Medal for his heroic efforts to save his navigator after their plane was shot down in the North Sea in 1943, and Glasgow’s most decorated policeman, Walter Docherty, who served as chief of Naples police in the Allied Military Government. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star.

As officers went to fight in the conflict, the force was left “under enormous pressure” to plug the gaps in the cities, towns and villages they left behind, Professor Fraser tells 1919.

The war brought additional duties, alongside increasing challenges of crime and public order.

Equipped with metal helmets and gas masks, police were tasked with enforcing blackouts, preventing criminals from looting bombed buildings, and cracking down on the black market.

They also had a role to play in intelligence gathering, capturing those who deserted and recovering escaped prisoners of war.

Inspector Smith adds: “These were our critical activities that directly influenced how the war developed.”

One touching story, captured on camera, shows how police helped to manage the arrival of evacuees in rural areas, overseeing efforts to find them a safe place to stay and help them settle.

“The best pigeons were fed with grain from the police in case they were needed for messaging if the communications network failed”

Glasgow Police Museum curator Alistair Dinsmor

As the war developed, devastating air raids brought destruction across the UK and caused the deaths of thousands.

Aberdeen was the most bombed city in Scotland during the Second World War, being attacked on 32 occasions between 1940 and 1943.

By far the deadliest attack occurred on April 21, 1943, over the north of the city. Thirty-one tonnes of bombs were dropped, leaving more than 120 people dead. Around 10,000 houses were demolished following the raid because of bomb damage.

The Clydebank Blitz also killed 1,200 people and seriously injured 1,000 over two nights in March 1941.

Police were among the first on the scene, helping rescue services reach the injured and recover the dead. They also helped people to safety and protected bombed sites from being looted.

In total, ten special constables in Glasgow lost their lives in bombing raids in 1941 alone, among them Special Constable John MacKrell.

In Buckie on the Moray Firth coast, evacuees from Edinburgh were met by Sergeant John Simpson, who took two children from Portobello into his family home.

Perhaps one of the strangest new duties was recently unearthed by archivists at the Glasgow Police Museum.

They found evidence of a police inspector assigned to carrying out regular inspections of birds kept by the city’s pigeon fanciers.

“The best pigeons were fed with grain from the police in case they were needed for messaging if the communications network failed,” curator Alistair Dinsmor explains.

“An inspector would go around and check their health and condition before supplying the grain to feed them to ensure they were ready for service.”

Blackouts brought further dangers to the police – in 1944 Inspector Ernest Walker was knocked down and killed by a vehicle during the blackout.

At the Glasgow Police Museum, Dinsmor explains: “New rules around blackouts, air raid warnings and rationing meant police had new duties, and crime rates actually increased.

“Some gangsters and criminals avoided service, and they continued operating in Scotland’s cities during the war. Blackouts meant there was no light at night and looting and robbery was more of a problem.”

To cope with demands, police recruited special constables, women, and reserve officers to keep law and order, as well as respond to the new challenges presented by six years of war.

In Glasgow alone, 773 men joined the city’s First Police Reserve, and 1,900 special constables were recruited.

In August 1939, the Home Office approved the establishment of the Women’s Auxiliary Police Corps (WAPC) to assist the regular police force.

In Glasgow, 220 women joined – the first women to wear a police uniform. Their duties were driving, working in communications, staffing canteens, and carrying out observation work.

“It paved the way for more women to join the regular force”

Inspector Claire Smith

Those women included Elizabeth Hunter, who was eventually promoted to police inspector after joining the WAPC during the war. She was awarded the exemplary service medal for her work training women policewomen in Cyprus during the 1950s.

Dinsmor tells 1919: “War brought more women into the force and gave them the opportunity to carry out uniformed roles for the first time.

“While the Women’s Auxiliary Constabulary was disbanded after the war, 26 women were kept on in Glasgow and in many ways it was a big step forward.”

Inspector Smith adds: “It paved the way for more women to join the regular force. Aberdeen’s first uniformed officer, Rosalind Davidson, joined in 1947. Women were eventually allowed to enrol as special constables from 1949.”

While the country commemorates the people from all walks of life whose actions and sacrifices brought an end to fighting in Europe 80 years ago, the special role of the police is a story that should not be forgotten.

The brave men and women of the police then – as now – stepped into new and dangerous situations to keep the peace and keep people safe.

Police have always had an essential part to play in times of conflict and national crisis – for example in stepping in to help with the food crisis during the First World War.

As Inspector Smith says: “These are stories that must be told.”

Remembering the police of the
Second World War

Remembering the police of the Second World War

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