On This Day, 10 February 1917

Birmingham Mail

Saturday 10 February 1917

FATHER OF THE POLICE FORCE

Inspector Farmer, the chief officer of the Birmingham Coroner’s Staff, has completed forty-seven years service as a member of the Birmingham Police Force. When Mr. Farmer joined the force as a young man on February 2nd, 1870, comparatively few of the present members were born. Birmingham at that time was no easy place to patrol, and there were parts of the town where policemen went only at the peril of their lives. Inspector Farmer can tell thrilling stories of the old days, when the police on certain beats carried cutlasses for their own protection. On one occasion—l believe it was in the notorious Green’s Village—where the police went to make an arrest, the occupants of the house appeared pantomime fashion on the roof. Those were the days of dormer windows. They pelted the police with all kinds of missiles, and for a time from their point of vantage, were masters of the situation. But the besieged party did not have it all their own way. One of them appeared at the old Moor Street Police Station afterwards, and taking a small packet carefully from his pocket, exposed its contents. It was his own ear. A cutlass had evidently been used with some effect on that occasion.