History from Police Archives - The Open University

188 Pages·2009·16.96 MB·English

History
from
Police Archives
Two teaching packagesfrom the Open University

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History
from
Police Archives
Two teaching packages from the Open Iniversity
Prof. Clive Emsley
Dr Terry Waterfi eld
History Department
Faculty of Arts
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England &
Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).

Preface
This CD provides resource material from the Police Archive held at the Open
University for two projects designed for Key Stage 3 and sixth-form students. The
material is presented in the form of two teaching packages: one to study the role
of the police during the Second World War and the other to generate discussions
about the responsibilities of citizenship. Both topics have associated work sheets
with suggestions of how the material might be used.
The role of the Police during the Second World War
This package is designed particularly to provide a resource for Key Stage 3, and
specifi cally for the study of the home front during the Second World War. Some of
the documents are, however, quite lengthy and might well be best used with older
students and in other contexts. The documents are divided into short chapters with
a narrative link about the role of the police during the war.
The Police and citizenship
These documents have been selected to provide an understanding of the role of the
police in English society and, specifi cally, to generate class discussions about both
the complexities of this role and about citizenship responsibilities in general. This
material should sit comfortably with any GCSE and sixth-form study course. The
documents are divided into short chapters with a narrative introduction linking the
role of the police and the behaviour and/or responsibilities of society.
Organisation of material
This guide has been divided into four parts: the narrative for each of the two sub-
jects; the worksheets, which are organised by topic within each subject; images of
the documents themselves, and fi nally transcripts of the handwritten documents.
Small images of the documents have been included on the worksheets for refer-
ence and to provide a direct link between questions and documents. To facilitate
printing for classwork, each topic, worksheet, and document set starts on a new
page.
Copyright
The contents of this CD are protected by the law of copyright in the United King-
dom and international treaties worldwide.
No part of these contents may be reproduced, decompiled, stored in any other
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechani-
cal, photocopying, recording or otherwise except in accordance with UK copyright
Designs and Patents Act, 1988 and copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations
1992, or any other law pertaining to intellectual property in the appropriate terri-
tory without the prior permission of The Open University.
© The Open University 2008 Police Archives i
ii Police Archives © The Open University 2008
Contents
Preface ..................................................................i
Contents ..............................................................iii
Police in Wartime ....................................................1
Introduction ...................................................................1
Police during the Second World War ...................................3
The Blitz ........................................................................5
County Chief Constable ....................................................7
A Volunteer ....................................................................9
Modern Echoes ..............................................................11
The Police and Citizenship ......................................13
Introduction ..................................................................13
The Police Service ..........................................................15
Defi nitions .....................................................................19
People’s Rights and Police-Public Relations .........................21
Keeping Order on the Roads ............................................23
Equality and Gender in the Police Service ..........................25
Work Sheets ........................................................27
Introduction ............................................................27
Police in Wartime .....................................................29
The Blitz - General discussion ..........................................29
The Blitz - Preparations ...................................................31
The Blitz - Air Raids ........................................................33
The Blitz - After the Raid .................................................35
County Chief Constable - General discussion ......................37
County Chief Constable - Mr Florey’s farm .........................39
County Chief Constable - Unity Mitford ..............................41
County Chief Constable - Sir Oswald Mosley .......................43
County Chief Constable - Re-civilianisation of Europe ..........45
A Volunteer ...................................................................47
Modern Echoes ..............................................................49
The Police and Citizenship .........................................51
Defi nitions and Police in a Democracy ...............................51
People’s Rights and Police-Public Relations .........................53
Keeping Order on the Roads - General discussion ...............55
Keeping Order on the Roads - Accidents ............................57
Keeping Order on the Roads - Traffi c .................................59
Keeping Order on the Roads - Speed .................................61
Equality and Gender .......................................................63
Documents ..........................................................65
Police in Wartime .....................................................65
The Blitz .......................................................................65
The Blitz - Preparations ...................................................67
The Blitz - Air Raids ........................................................71
The Blitz - After the Raid .................................................87
County Chief Constable ...................................................91
County Chief Constable - Mr Florey’s farm .......................107
County Chief Constable - Unity Mitford ............................111
County Chief Constable - Sir Oswald Mosley .....................119
County Chief Constable - Re-civilianisation of Europe ........129
A Volunteer .................................................................133
Modern Echoes ............................................................139
The Police and Citizenship ....................................... 141
The Police Service in England and Wales ..........................141
© The Open University 2008 Police Archives iii
People’s Rights and Police-Public Relations .......................143
Keeping Order on the Roads - Accidents ..........................147
Keeping Order on the Roads - Traffi c ...............................149
Keeping Order on the Roads - Speed ...............................161
Equality and Gender .....................................................163
Transcripts .........................................................175
The Police in Wartime ............................................. 175
Fred Fancourt’s experience as an ambulance driver ...........175
St Johnston’s letter to his parents ...................................177
Acknowledgements .............................................179
iv Police Archives © The Open University 2008
Police in Wartime
Historians construct their narratives from documents and from interrogating docu- I
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ments. At the Open University we have always focused on developing this skill
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with our students and we suggest a brief set of guidelines for approaching any r
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document (or other trace of the past - a photograph, a building, etc). This may be
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of use to you in using this material with your own students:
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• First, what kind of document is it? t
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• Second, what is the context of the document? What were the events that
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surrounded it? And for what reason was it created?
• Third, what are the obvious things that you can learn from the document
- put simply, what does the author/photographer want the reader/viewer
to know as a result of the document?
• Fourth, what is the unwitting testimony of the document? In other
words, what can you learn from 'reading between the lines'? What
were the author's assumptions? What can you learn from the document
about things that were going on that are not really part of what the
author wants his reader to see - perhaps because he or she takes them
for granted and part of his or her world (as opposed to the world of the
historian); perhaps because he or she wants to gloss over them?
• Fifth, what does the document add to our knowledge about the subject
under investigation? Does it support the view that we already have? Or
does it nuance or challenge that view?
Finally, it might be worth advising students to keep in mind one or two things
about the written documents that historians use in looking at the period of the
Second World War. The documents that follow were written by people who
sometimes may have used language in a rather different way from that which is
common today (for example, Eric St Johnston addresses his parents as 'My Dear
People'), their handwriting may have been unskilled, their typing-skills (these
documents were written before computers) may have been poor and old type face
is rarely as clear as modern, laser printing.
© The Open University 2008 Police Archives 1
2 Police Archives © The Open University 2008