The history of black policing in the UK, created by Suchitra Chatterjee for the Black History Project

1. Fragments in Time
History in the Making
Law-Police-Justice-History
“Let justice be done though the
heavens fall”
Suchitra Chatterjee for Black History
Project & Sussex Police 2015

2. Thomas Latham – Parish Constable –
The first BME police officer in the UK?
Year - 1746
Thomas Latham
was described in the
Middlesex Sessions
records as being a
“Negro [Parish]
Constable”

3. Nathaniel Wells – Justice of the Peace
Nathaniel Wells was
born in 1779 in St Kitts,
the son of a slave and a
Welsh Merchant. Wells
eventually became a
Justice of the Peace in1803.
Four of his daughters
moved to Brighton in 1888

4. John Kent – Police Constable
John Kent was the
son of a former
slave and an English
girl who became a
Police Constable in
1837 in Carlisle. He
was known by his
Police colleagues as
“Black Kent"

5. Henry Solomon – Chief Constable
Henry Solomon was
the Chief Constable of
Brighton in the 1830s.
He was Jewish and an
active member of his
local Synagogue. He
was murdered whilst
still in office in 1844

6. Baron David Pitt of Hampstead
Baron David Pitt
founded the Campaign
against Racial
Discrimination, Britain’s
first civil Rights
Organization in the
1950s. He was also a
Staunch advocate for
people of colour to join
the police.

7. Sislin Fay Allen – Police Constable
Sislin Fay Allen was
the first Black woman to
join London's
Metropolitan Police
Force in the 1968. She
worked as a Nurse
before she became a
Police officer

8. Norwell Roberts
joined the Met in 1967
when he was 21 years
old and achieved media
and public attention
because he was at the
time believed to be the
first Black Police Officer
in London
Norwell Roberts – Police Constable

9. Karpal Kaur Sandu – Police Constable
Karpal Kaur Sandu
joined the Metropolitan
Police Force in 1971.
Like her contemporary
Sislin Fay Allen was a
Nurse before becoming
a police officer. She
was also murdered
whilst still a serving
police officer

10. Lee-Jane Yates – Police Sergeant
Lee-Jane Yates joined the
police 1981. Her first post
was in Bow Street in London.
She worked for the
Metropolitan Police Service
for 30 years before retiring
in 2014

11. Peter Reid – Police Sergeant
Peter Reid joined the
Thames Valley Police in
1985 He was based in
and around Oxford. In
1990 and 1992 he also
achieved the title of Mr
Universe in the arena
of competitive body
building

12. Caroline Murrell nee Dugdale – Police
Constable
Caroline Murrell was a
founder member of the
Sussex Black Police
Association (SBPA) in
She joined Sussex Police
in 1993. Her death in
2009 was the result of a
degenerative illness.

13. PCSO Cheryl Marsh
Cheryl Marsh joined
Sussex Police in 2003
as a PCSO. She was
instrumental in getting
Domestic Violence
training for PCSO’S
implemented
throughout Brighton &
Hove. She died in 2007
from Asbestosis.

14. Michael Fuller QPM – Chief
Constable
Michael Fuller
QPM is the former
Chief Constable of
the Count of Kent.
He was and still is
the first Black
Chief Constable in
the UK and he
took up his post in
2004.

15. Contact Details
Suchitra Chatterjee
Black History project
Suchi@black-history.org.uk
Sussex Police
Suchitra.Chatterjee@sussex.pnn.police.uk
Photographs courtesy of the internet, the
families of PCSO MARSH, PC Caroline
Dugdale, & BH Designs