Lancashire’s Crime and Criminals: With Some Characteristics of the County, it’s People, Dialect, Humour and Progress

Superintendent Richard Jervis retired from the Lancashire Constabulary in 1907.  At that time, he had been a policeman for 57 years.  He was reportedly the longest serving and the oldest policeman in England. In retirement he set himself the task of writing a book about his experiences of being a policeman from 1850 to 1907.

This book is very well written and likely to be of great interest to policing, social and local historians alike. In it, Richard Jervis details his experience of crimes from thefts and frauds, to assaults and murders, as well as those that related closely to the particular social conditions of the time and place, such as miners strikes, Irish immigration and unwanted children.

Throughout his career, at different times, Richard Jervis lived and worked in places like Bacup, Bury, Burnley, Colne, Lancaster, Ormskirk, Rossendale and Southport. He dearly loved Lancashire’s “Gradely” folk as he called them, particularly the poor and the communities of East Lancashire.  His book is also a guide to the unique dialect and humour of these people.

Not content with concerning himself only with crime, Richard Jervis was a social reformer around salient issues such as drunkenness, poverty and poor housing.  He raised money for good causes such as to run soup kitchens and provide activities for children. A most untypical policeman, he shares his own thoughts on crime and punishments.  The latter were often brutal and harsh in his time. Further he goes beyond his personal reminiscences to include a good history of policing in England and of punishments in different societies since antiquity.

Richard Jervis lived a long and good life and wanted to leave behind a record of the Lancashire he loved. He died at his residence in Tilstock, near Whitchurch in 1910. He had been awarded the King’s Police Medal shortly before his death, but hadn’t been well enough to travel to London to collect it. First published in 1908, this special edition of Lancashire’s Crime and Criminals is published by Lewisham Press, 2020.

£6.99