New Award Supporting the Digitisation of Historic Police Personnel Records
Hampshire Constabulary History Society (HCHS) was formed in 1986 and its aim is to foster interest in the Force and the old City and Borough Police Forces that once exited in the two counties. In doing so it intends to develop an interest in items of equipment, records and photographs including uniforms and accoutrements.
The Society holds a large collection of documents that detail the rich history of the Force from 1839 to date.
The Society has an active website receiving hundreds of visits a month and interest is shown not only from the UK but from Australia, South Africa and the USA. It deals with hundreds of enquiries from genealogists and researchers who wish to discover details of officers who have served in any of the county and borough former constituent forces.
The grant award to HCHS. The Society has been given a total of 222 microfilm cartridges which contain copies of former officers and staff members’ personnel records as well as records of those who have left the service. The microfilms have become very fragile after years of use by the Force prior to acquisition.
To ensure that the rich source of social and police history is preserved for current and future researchers HCHS is to digitise the records so that the originals can be conserved and ensure that the records contained in them are both available and searchable. The digitised records will be indexed and searchable. Many of the records will have reached the end of their closure period and so will be readily available for research. Those records still closed will be preserved for future generations.
