Some of the existing Keepers were retained in 1878 and new Keepers were taken on as Constables by the Epping Forest Committee which had the power of appointing these officers. Their appointments were subject to the approval of the Court of Common Council and to that of the Chief Ranger of Epping Forest, the Duke of Connaught - the son of Queen Victoria and the first ever Ranger for Epping Forest. The Duke also nominated several prospective Forest Keepers as vacancies occurred among the ranks. In the present day, the position of Chief Ranger of Epping Forest is fulfilled by the Duke of Gloucester.

The first Superintendent of the Epping Forest Keepers was William D'Oyley, previously the City Forest Surveyor. Under Mr D'Oyley were two Head Keepers, Charles Watkins and Frederick Luffman, and Keepers J Chellis, Herbert Butt, James Pearse and J Dunning. One of the Keepers, Charles Watkins, was the son of William Watkins, who had been an assistant Forest Keeper. In fact, it was not uncommon for generations of families to serve in the role of Keeper. By the time the Forest was passed to the Corporation of the City of London, members of the Watkins family had been employed as Keepers to protect the interests of the Crown in the Forest for around 120 years.

Of course, being an Epping Forest Keeper was about much more than maintaining a fine appearance in uniform and many exemplary individuals have undertaken the duties over their more than 140 year long history. Mr Alexander McKenzie was appointed as Superintendent on 29 January 1880 to succeed Mr D'Oyley and with a salary of £500 a year - a salary that rivalled, and in many instances surpassed, those of the Chief Constables of the larger cities and counties at the time. There were at that time twelve Forest Keepers in addition to the Superintendent. Superintendent McKenzie executed the duties of his position in an admirable manner but not without some harsh scrutiny, with a cry for his dismissal in 1887, for the maiming of deer that occurred during events carried out by the Superintendent under the authority of the Committee. During these events, deer would often only be wounded, and would undergo a slow death over several days. These 'hunts' were also conducted in the name of thinning out the old bucks in the Forest but a great proportion of those shot were deer of only two and three years of age. Of all of the wildlife, deer are the one animal most associated with the Forest. Although Red Deer, Roe Deer and Fallow Deer once roamed the forest, only the Fallow Deer remained by the 1880s and numbered only about eighty or one hundred head, roaming the most unfrequented parts of the forest in small parties. The annual responsibility of the Epping Forest Keepers to conduct a count of the number of deer in the Forest continues to this day.

Upon the death of Major McKenzie in 1893, aged 64, his son, Mr Francis (Frank) Fuller McKenzie, who had been connected with the Forest for the previous thirteen years, was appointed Superintendent pro tem with his appointment confirmed 17 April 1893. Mr Frank McKenzie, was the second of a full three generations of McKenzie family members that were appointed as Superintendent of the Forest Keepers. In this role he was highly respected among the Epping Forest Committee, the majority of which regarded him as a most zealous and efficient officer. Despite the appreciation for the manner in which he executed his duties, Mr McKenzie's petition for an increase in salary in 1913 met with some resistance initially but an increase of £150 per year was eventually approved. Upon his retirement at the end of July in 1932, his son, Colin Alexander McKenzie, was appointed in succession. Mr Colin McKenzie first entered the service of the Epping Forest Committee in 1929.

Following Colin McKenzie's retirement in 1949, as the third and last generation of the McKenzie's to hold the office, the position of Superintendent passed through several individuals. Firstly, Mr Alfred Qvist, from 1949 to 1978, followed by Mr John Irving Besent, from 1978 to 2001, Mr Jeremy Wisenfeld, from January 2001 to 2005 and, from 1 September 2008, Mr Paul Thomson. Mr Besent is especially worthy of note as the longstanding tradition of the Superintendent occupying The Warren house ended with him as the last occupant as Superintendent. The house was acquired in 1876 and had been the official residence of the Superintendent of Epping Forest. Mr Besent was also awarded the OBE for services to Epping Forest and the Corporation of London in 1996. Mr Thomson, the current Superintendent, before coming to Epping Forest, was in the Hampshire County Council's Countryside Service.

Although the Superintendents were seemingly well paid, the fine manner in which the Keepers were attired did not directly correlate to their level of compensation. Their wages and hours were often a subject of concern for the early Forest Keepers as evidenced by their request to better both in 1898 and once again in 1900. Some Keepers found it difficult to manage financially and, when permitted, would subsidise their wages by performing additional activities, such as selling teas, etc. from their cottage. Perhaps hinting at some of the economies that were practised, when a Keeper was asked to bury a dead swan in 1915, he was given permission to keep the down. By 1925, the annual wages of all of the Forest Keepers together totalled £2,004. A further account of 'subsidising' wages came about in 1930 when two Forest Keepers, Albert Dickens and Edwin Watson Grant, both ex-Grenadier Guardsmen, were found guilty and each fined £5 for demanding a bribe to stop them from reporting for a summons for a motorist whose car was on Forest land. The frequent discourse focusing on compensation continued in 1933 when fourteen Forest Keepers wrote to Superintendent McKenzie requesting a wage rise. They felt fully justified in their request, carefully detailing how their workload had increased, the result being that the Superintendent agreed to a raise as well as a regular day off. He also authorised the hiring of two additional Forest Keepers to help reduce the workload among the Keepers.

Among the duties they would have detailed was their appearance in Court against the offenders who had behaved contrary to the Bye-laws of the Forest. On these occasions, the Forest Keepers provided testimony detailing the circumstances of the offence. Some examples of deeds expressly forbidden in the Forest by the Epping Forest Bye-Laws, and enforced by the Forest Keepers, are the carrying of loaded firearms, trespassing in search of game, card-playing, whether or not for money, setting snares for taking deer, bird-catching, theft, riding a bicycle on the footpath, breaking trees in the forest (the act of gathering sear wood is not objectionable) and ferreting, all of which took the Keepers out of the Forest and into the Courts to give evidence against offenders between 1881 and 1937. The Forest Keepers were generally successful with those prosecutions resulting in fines. In 1882, Head Keeper Watkins testified before the Epping Magistrates with respect to an individual letting out horses for hire in the Forest without having obtained a licence. A penalty of 2s. 6d. and costs 11s. 6d. was imposed against the defendant.

With conservation being the primary concern of the 1878 Act, the duties of the Keepers were duly focused on related matters in the Forest. They were under the strictest orders in 1880 to prevent bird nesting, snaring and shooting within the precincts of the Forest. The Corporation were especially anxious to keep the deer, game and birds undisturbed by dogs and guns. They found that cautioning did little good as a deterrent and summons were applied for instead. Nothing was allowed to be destroyed other than the venomous snakes, such as adders and vipers, in the name of keeping the Forest safe. The Superintendent even put a price on the head of each snake the Forest Keepers brought to him with the goal of their ultimate extermination.

With the start of the First World War, Forest Keeper duties were expanded to include orders far reaching from their previous remit. These included reporting anyone in motor cars loitering or acting suspiciously when Zeppelins were about. Such duties were not publicly known as the Forest Keepers were not permitted to let anyone else know of this particular order, which was marked 'private'. Among Epping Forest Keepers who enlisted to serve in the First World War were Keeper Sidney Butt. His father, Herbert, who had been appointed a Forest Keeper in 1876, and by then in his seventies, came out of retirement to cover his duties as a Keeper in his absence.

For their efforts, the Forest Keepers were given a War Bonus and Superintendent McKenzie also secured an increase in the War Bonus for them in 1919.

With the commencement of the Second World War, some of the Keepers were again taken away from their service in the Forest on war duty. Those who remained were given special duties related to the new conflict such as attending gas drill training in 1939. Many of the Forest Keepers served in the Second World War including Keeper Reynolds, who resigned as a Keeper amidst sickness and unsatisfactory behaviour, then joining the Army. Another of the Keepers served in the Navy. Keeper S J Rowlings served in France with the British Expeditionary Force in 1939. Keeper Rawlings was an Acting Squadron Sergeant Major in the Grenadier Guard. Another of the Keepers was on service in Egypt.

The Second World War also affected not only the Keepers but the Forest on multiple occasions including a land mine explosion in the Forest in 1940 and damage done to the Warren and Keepers Cottages in 1944. In 1942, Keeper Drayton, aged 71, was knocked down by an Army lorry. After the conclusion of the Second World War, the Forest Keepers carefully detailed the locations of bomb craters in the Forest with Superintendent Qvist raising the alarm in 1950 of the danger these posed to the public.

The extremes of the two World Wars aside, throughout their history, the Epping Forest Keepers have been confronted with incidents of much greater severity than violations of the Forest bye-laws they were established to police. Murders, suicides, assaults and the deaths of fellow Keepers in the line of duty have occurred as early as their service as attested Constables commenced in 1878. It was in that year that an Epping Forest Keeper discovered the body of a woman in a lonely part of the wood suspected of having been murdered - her throat cut from ear to ear. The Police at Loughton were contacted and enquiries set on foot. The husband of the woman was eventually charged with murder and committed for trial at the Chelmsford Assizes. In 1926, a man taking part in bird-catching, which was contrary to the Forest bye-laws, collapsed and died while being pursued by Forest Keepers. Such tragic events continued to occur during the tenure of Superintendent Qvist in 1951 with the discovery of the skeleton of a woman by a Forest Keeper near his house and, in May 1980, when the body of a four-year old girl who had been murdered was found in Epping Forest.

Deaths discovered in the Forest by the Keepers were not always the result of foul play but sadly, the acts of willing participants. Such was the case in July of 1929, when a man was found floating in the water some yards from the bank. A Forest Keeper quickly removed the man from the water and sent for assistance. Attempts were made to resuscitate him but it was believed he had taken poison. A suicide attempt was discovered by Forest Keeper William Hughes in 1896 when he came across a man who had cut his throat, still alive, aid was brought to him. In 1935, the body of a man was found with a bullet wound to his head with a pistol lying nearby.

On some occasions, this violence was suspected or linked to tragic losses from within the ranks of the Forest Keepers. On 3 November 1909, the body of Sergeant-Major William Silwood was found in a ditch in an isolated part of the Forest only a few days after he had begun his new duties as a Forest Keeper. The police did not initially entertain the thought of foul play, believing he either slipped or tripped while on night duty and struck his head, falling and drowning in the ditch. However, Mr Silwood had mentioned to an acquaintance in the days prior to his death that he had a poaching case on with "the Epping Boys". In the end, the jury returned a verdict of "Found drowned in Epping Forest". Mr Silwood was formerly a member of the 2nd Life Guards, held the DSO and had served in the Army for twenty-seven years. At his funeral, he was borne to the grave by Forest Keepers. A further death of a Forest Keeper occurred in 1939 when Forest Keeper Maurice Powell collapsed and died after receiving a blow from a man he had apprehended. Keeper Powell had been a Police Officer for many years at Chingford before he became a Forest Keeper.

Some dangers in the 'wilds' of the Forest happily concluded with light-hearted results such as the report of a lioness in Epping Forest in 1963. In this case, the hunt was soon over with the discovery of the 'lioness' that turned out to be a 13 year-old Labrador named Nero. More recently, in 2013, another big cat was reported up a tree. This time it was found to be a toy panther left by a prankster.

A rather extraordinary occurrence, under the watch of Superintendent Qvist in December of 1952, involved a herd of 20 to 30 deer leaping out of the darkness and overturning a car in the Forest, causing it to fall down a slope and bring injury to the occupants. In events such as this, the attention of the Forest Keepers not only focused on the injuries to the people involved but also to the wildlife that may have been harmed. It was the duty of the Forest Keepers to go in search of deer potentially injured by the encounter. By this time, there were two dozen uniformed and plain-clothes Forest Keepers under Superintendent Qvist that could be involved in a search.

The numbers and health of the deer population have always been a focus of the Forest Keepers and a count of the Fallow Deer population in 1954 showed their numbers had fallen to a mere 67 animals. The decline in their population was attributed to uncontrolled dogs and the growth in motor vehicle usage and the related fatalities. In response to their dwindling numbers, Superintendent Qvist investigated sites for a "deer park" sanctuary in which to preserve the deer. In June of 1959, land was purchased and an area enclosed. Current management of the deer sanctuary is the responsibility of the Head Keeper with the day-to-day management carried out by a Forest Keeper from the Northern team with specialist skills in this area.

Today, although a fully modernised establishment, the Forest Keepers continue to reflect the Epping Royal Forest heritage, with the role remaining titled 'Keeper'. Those in the position provide a uniformed presence and regulate and manage the public use of Epping Forest. The Forest Keepers work jointly with local authorities and partner agencies, including Essex Police, to ensure the Forest is managed efficiently to prevent damage and to minimise anti-social behaviour. This entails public engagement and community involvement including responding to public enquiries, working with volunteers in community groups and schools and conducting walks and talks on various themes such as angling and bicycle riding. Nature related talks have been a part of the role of the Forest Keeper for well over one hundred years. In June 1884, among the earliest excursions was one lead by Forest Keepers Luffman and Butt who took sixty people on a ramble through the Forest in the hope of catching sight of Forest Deer.

As of October 2002, the authorisation of new Forest Keepers, after a six month probation period, is a power exercised by the Epping Forest and Commons Committee as delegated by the Court of Common Council. The Forest Keepers are sworn in by a Magistrate and carry warrant cards as Constables for the City of London Corporation. As Constables, they are able to more effectively carry out their duties in respect of enforcing the Epping Forest Bye-laws within the boundaries of the Forest. Not all of the Forest Keepers are attested as Constables. In 2013, the team consisted of 13 Forest Keepers, with only eleven of them sworn in as Constables.

1. Section 46 of the Epping Forest Act 1878
2. Section 9, Regulation of Horse Riding, of the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1971
3. Section 4 of the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1971, restriction of rights of common
4. Section 9 of the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1990, riding of horses
5. Section 10, new bye-laws, also under Section 87, leaving litter, and Section 88, fixed penalty notices, of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
6. Open Spaces Act 2018

The current Head Keeper is Martin Newnham. He follows Keith French, who was Head Keeper from 1 September 2001 until October 2015. Mr Newnham holds the titles of Head Keeper and Head of Enforcement with the rank of Chief Inspector. He is also attested and sworn as a Constable for the Corporation of London. Mr Newnham served in the regular army and then in the reserve, reaching the rank of Major, before coming to Epping Forest. As Head Keeper and Head of Enforcement, his varied duties include strategic planning, policing, wide stakeholder engagement, recruiting and mentoring new staff and game management. He is a qualified land manager with a degree in countryside and wildlife management. Mr Newnham also has the benefit of living rent free in a "grace and favour" cottage.

In 2009, under Mr French, there were thirteen Forest Keepers. Under Mr Newnham the team of Epping Forest Keepers has grown from twelve, nine Keepers and three senior Keepers, in 2016, to sixteen being attested as Constables as of August 2020.

Much has changed for the Epping Forest Keepers in the over 140 years since becoming an attested force in 1878. The whistles used in the past have given way to mobile phones and radios but today's Forest Keepers still maintain some of the traditions of their heritage, especially in the wearing of their "court suits" of tweed adorned with the gold badges of the Epping Forest Keepers. Their current day-to-day uniform being not quite as grand in comparison. Together, they operate a 24/7, 365 days a year service to ensure visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience in the Forest with the Forest Keeper's "view from the office" being an extremely pleasant one working within the environs of Epping Forest.