Due to a shortage of Officers in the Metropolitan Police in 1955, an experimental scheme was designed in which sixty specially trained Constables covered their beats on lightweight motorcycles. This allowed two or more beats normally covered on foot or bicycle to be patrolled by one man on a motorcycle. In order not to diminish their level of community engagement, a primary tenant of the programme was that the motorcycles were to travel at slow speeds, between 10 and 15 miles an hour, to ensure the Officers continued to be easily available to and stopped by members of the public. In the more vulnerable parts of the beat, the Officers parked their machines and patrolled on foot.

The new experimental scheme was to last a year and was put into practise on 19

Coats of arms have their origins in the twelfth century and since then have been borne by individuals and corporate bodies as marks of identification. Heraldric devices have always had a place in the insignia and branding used by the British Police Forces.

Until the mergers following the 1964 Police Act, the heraldry was usually that of the town, borough, city or county of the force, with the collar dogs often being the shield. Some Forces, such as the Metropolitan Police have been granted Arms and others, such as the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, have acquired their heraldric symbolry through less official channels. Each quarter in this column, we will focus on the use and meaning of heraldric symbols with reference to the British Police. In this installment we highlight the Coat of Arms of the Metropolitan Police.

The Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has at last received the official sanction of the Home Secretary to attach a number of young women to the Criminal Investigation Department for duty as plain-clothes detectives. Women detectives have for some years been a feature of several provincial police forces, and the heads of the C.I.D. have been pressing the Commissioners to recommend to the Home Office the granting of warrant cards to a selected number of women with the necessary qualifications. Most foreign police forces, too, have their women sleuths. I raised the point of 'make-up' with one of the 'ladies of the C.I.D' (writes a Tit-Bits woman). "So far we have not received instructions regarding lip-sticks and powder puffs," she said. "In fact, we are encouraged to dress exactly as we would if we had a job in business. Yes, we are to have a clothing allowance, like all detective-officers."

On the 14th September 1967 the Metropolitan Police Service issued a press release to inform the world that their WPCs would now be patrolling the streets of the capital in uniforms designed by Norman Hartnell. The couturier had received a royal warrant and designed for the royal family including the dresses for the bridal parties of the Queen and Princess Margaret and the gowns for the Queen, the women of the royal family and the trainbearers for the coronation. Now his designs would be worn by the women of the Metropolitan Police Service as they went about their duties.

In 1868, the Metropolitan Police numbered 7,782 men to protect a population of 3,400,000 - more than the population of all of Scotland at that time. This number of men was reduced by those on "special duties" such as guarding the Palaces, the Houses of Parliament, Record Offices, public museums and public buildings. These duties absorbed no less than 1,200 men, leaving no more than 5,800 to guard an area of 700 square miles that was becoming more and more densely popoulated.

The extract below is from the private memoirs of Chief Inspector Thomas Bocking who passed the years of his prime in a position of much responsibility in West London. When he had returned to spend his pension days in his native village, Brancaster, he amused himself by writing the story of his life. When stationed in the Kensington Division he was in the thick of some of the leading events of the mid-Victorian period.

The new Metropolitan Police Sub-Divisional Police Station in Kennington Road, south-east London, was officially opened by the Home Secretary, Major Lloyd George on 25 October 1955. It was the first new Police Station to be built in London since the War.

The memorandum issued by Colonel Sir Edward Ward, the Chief Staff Officer of the Special Constabulary for London, in August 1914 opened, "Citizens desirous of being employed as Special Constables are requested to register their names and addresses at the nearest Police Station." The enlistment commenced on 12 August and over 7,000 had offered their services by 14 August toward the organisation of 20,000 Special Constabulary in the Metropolitan Police Area.

The Special Constabulary was under the control of the Home Office. Every member was called upon to take duty for four hours in every twenty-four. They started to present themselves at the appointed places on 17 August 1914 and were sworn in and assigned an identification number and warrant card. Equipment including a truncheon, a whistle, a notebook and an armlet to be worn during their turn of duty was issued when they were called upon. Each Special Constable had the same powers, authority and immunity, and was called upon to accept the same responsibility as a Police Constable.

A luxury West End hotel with all of the modern conveniences at a cost of a few pence a day. Impossible? Not if you're a member of the Metropolitan Police.

This was the headline in 1976 after the Metropolitan Police spent more than £200,000 to convert the Elliot House section house in Molyneux Street, Marylebone, giving the thirty-seven year-old building a new look. For 01632 a month, ninety-three policemen and women enjoyed the luxury of tastefully decorated rooms equipped with modern, comfortable furniture. Similar accommodation cost £30 a month on the open market.

The location of the section house had been synonymous with the Metropolitan Police for a variety of purposes for well over one hundred years with the section house being the last use. From 1848 until 1904, it was the site of the Molyneux Street Police Station and then the John Street Police Station from 1904 to 1913. From 1913 until 6am, Friday, 1st December

Early married quarters of the Metropolitan Police included Charles Henry House in Clerkenwell and Edward Henry House in Waterloo which were designed in the 1920's by Gilbert MacKenzie Trench, who was better known for his police boxes. By the early 1950's, the Metropolitan Police were deficient by about 4,000 men. Many young Constables who left did so because of housing troubles, frequently going to provincial Forces where housing accommodation was provided. In London, Officers had to live close to their stations because of the times of their duties. This meant they often lived in section houses or lodgings and their wives then lived in the provinces. In the early 1950's the building of more married quarters for the police was approved at scale as it was felt bettering their conditions of service would mean more Officers might be recruited.

A decision was made in December of 1910 to arm certain members of the Metropolitan Police with automatic pistols as an outcome of the Tottenham and Houndsditch outrages. In the third week of November of 1911, the first batch of an order for 2,000 automatic pistols was received from Webley and Scott. The weapons were of an improved Browning type, .32 calibre, and were selected after a series of trials by the Government's Chief Inspector of Small Arms, the Home Office having referred the selection of the pistols to the War Office experts.

In 1934, sixty-two young men were selected for rapid promotion within the Metropolitan Police. The programme was the brain child of then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Trenchard. A country club was purchased and equipped at a cost of £110,000 and the Police College at Hendon came into being. The first term started 10 May 1934 and the fifteen month programme, three of which being holidays, completed by July of 1935. After periods varying between five months and a year, the men joined or re-joined the Metropolitan Police with the rank of Junior Station Inspector on probation. A chrome star above a bar of the same finish denoted the rank of Junior Station Inspector, which had not previously existed in the Metropolitan Police.

Although the term had already started, the Police College at Hendon was officially opened on 31 May 1934 by the Prince of Wales. The object of the College was to enable smart young officers already in the Force and other Constable candidates to save at least nine years of the routine duty that typically existed between the rank of Sergeant and Inspector. Few men reached the rank of Inspector in less than fifteen years from the time they took their Constable's oath.

There was much enthusiasm in the newspapers during the Jubilee season in 1935 with respect to the uniform of the Metropolitan Police. Special orders were issued by Lord Trenchard, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, for every member to appear as smart as possible. In many cases, new uniforms were being issued and particular attention was paid in the press to the cap badge to be worn by the senior ranks of the Force. Articles appeared announcing new cap badges that were to be worn for the first time by Superintendents and Inspectors of the Metropolitan Police on 6th May, the 25th anniversary of the King's accession. The design of the new cap badges was described as a star surmounted by a crown. On a circular blue enamel band were the words, "Metropolitan Police", and the Royal cypher was shown in the centre. The Superintendents' cap badges were to be made of solid silver, whilst those of the Inspectors were to be chrome plated. The occasion seemed to be a milestone in the issue of insignia by the Metropolitan Police.

Although the enthusiasm for the 'new' insignia did not wane at the time, looking back, the lustre of the occasion, relevant to the cap badges, quickly fades when considering the photographic evidence available from that date back to the reign of Edward VII. It must have also been evident to those observant Officers of the Metropolitan Police who might have taken an interest in their uniform. An excellent photograph that challenges the importance of this date for the issuing of a