Eastern Union Railway Police
1844 - 1862BY KEVIN GORDON (BTP)
The Eastern Union Railway Act was passed in 1844. The railway provided services in the south part of East Anglia including Colchester, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and Harwich where boat services ran to Holland. The railway ran into London to a terminus at Shoreditch. The chairman was Mr. John Chevallier Cobbold; a solicitor of the well known Suffolk family later known for their brewing. (The Tolly Cobbold Brewery at Ipswich brewed from 1723 to 2002.) The first goods trains ran on 30th November 1846 and the first passenger service was a special train that ran from Shoreditch in London on 7th December 1846.
In 1847 the Eastern Union Railway had a Police force of 15 men and by 1854 this had over doubled to 38. A photograph exists of an Eastern Union Railway Police Truncheon. It has a crown with the letters VR with a garter enclosing "No 72" and underneath an oval with the word 'POLICE'. The Eastern Union Railway Police became part of Great Eastern Railway Police in 1862.
