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‘Mother, what did policemen do when there weren't any motors?’ The law, the police and the regulation of motor traffic in England, 1900–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Clive Emsley
Clive Emsley
Affiliation:
The Open University
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Abstract

The law had always been deployed by the police to regulate traffic, but the development of motor vehicles, travelling at much greater speeds than previous road traffic, constituted a problem of a new dimension. By the early 1920s the use of the law to control motor vehicles was jamming the magistrates' courts and creating friction, hitherto unknown, between the police and the middle classes. The paper explores the way in which, and the extent to which, the criminal law was used to control the motorist in the first third of the twentieth century. It takes issue with the whiggish view of law making, which understands laws as logical remedies for readily identifiable problems; it rejects equally the idea of seeing laws as inspired by class interest. Rather the motor traffic legislation fits better with the concept of the ‘policeman state’ which, according to V. A. C. Gatrell, developed from the late nineteenth century. At the same time the paper suggests that a scapegoat – ‘the road hog’ – was created as the focus for criticism in much the same way that other criminal scapegoats have been established; the offender thus ceased to be a member of society and became an outsider, threatening respectable law-abiding citizens.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 357 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 My thanks to the ESRC for a grant which enabled me to tap the hitherto largely unknown archives of the English police forces while working on this paper. The title quotation is taken from a cartoon in Punch, 31 Aug. 1927. An earlier version of this paper is to be found in the proceedings of the conference on ‘La création de la loi et ses acteurs: l'exemple du droit pénal’, held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Onati, Spain, March 1990.

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12 Hansard, 96, July 1, col. 424; July 2, col. 601; July 5, col. 989; Justice of the Peace, LXIII (1899), 507 and LXV (1901), 290, 428, 444 and 538Google Scholar; and see in general Plowden, William, The motor car and politics 1896–1970 (London, 1971), pp. 32–8Google Scholar.

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16 Ibid. 3 July 1903, p. 15. Similar correspondence is to be found in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. For other incidents of stones being thrown see Justice of the Peace, LXX (1906), 113Google Scholar; The Automotor Journal 1 May 1909, p. 508 and 18 Sep. 1909, pp. 1121–2. In the East Riding, in the summer of 1906, the chief constable felt it necessary to draw his men's attention to ‘the growing practice on the part of school children and youths of throwing stones at Bicycles and Motor Vehicles whilst passing along the highways throughout the Riding, particularly in the neighbourhood of villages’. Humberside constabulary archives, chief constable's memorandum book 1900–1912, 11 June 1907.

17 CCA, Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book 1884–1908 fo. 214–16. To SJC, 7 Sep. 1901.

18 Ibid. fo. 267–79, to SJC, 6 Sep. 1902; and ibid. fo. 279, to SJC. Chichester reported the following offences during the previous year: drivers refusing to stop, 20; drivers giving false addresses, 10; drivers attempting to bribe PCs, 4; accidents involving cars, 4.

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20 CCA, Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book 1884–1908, fo. 311–12. To R.J. Waff, 2 Aug. 1903.

21 Hansard, 108, 30 May 1902 col. 1057; questions were raised on the speed and identification of cars during other debates in 1902, see inter alia ibid. 109, col 1512 and 113, cols 216 and 809.

22 Ibid. 108, 11 June 1903, col. 720. Two weeks earlier, however, Long had said that he hoped it would be possible to bring forward a bill, probably in the lords, before the end of the session. Ibid. 27 May 1902, cols 20–1.

23 Ibid. 124, 7 July 1903, cols 1499ff.

24 Waites, Bernard, A class society at war: England 1914–18 (Leamington Spa, 1987), pp. 77–8Google Scholar. In the spring of 1903 the Metropolitan Police were contemplating the purchase of two ten horse power motor cars. They were informed: ‘The price of each car will be £475 for delivery at the end of April. If the catalogue price of £415 only is paid, the Wolseley Company could not deliver until 1905.I may add that even at the price of £475 these cars are cheaper than any other English make of equal power, workmanship and value. The canopy and glass screen will cost £30 extra for each car. In addition I should recommend that spare parts and instruments… should be ordered for each car. The cost of these will come to something under £50 per car. The Wolseley Company are ready to lend the Commissioner a car for use until the above cars are ready free of charge, but they will require to be repaid the wages of the driver, which will amount to something between £2 and £ 3 per week, probably say about 50s.’ ‘Some interesting items’, Journal of the Police History Society, iv (1989), 79Google Scholar. Constables in the Metropolitan Police were paid 28s. to 38s. per week.

25 Hansard, 126, 4 Aug. 1903, cols. 1454ff. The bill and its passage are discussed at length in Plowden, op. cit. pp. 50–8.

26 For example the Daily Telegraph reported on 24 May 1905 ‘what appears to have been a deliberate plan for causing damage to tyres. It has been discovered that for a considerable distance between the Great North road an d Huntingdon, a road which is much used by motorists to and from Cambridge, that the track has apparently been ‘sown’ with hobnails, such as are used for the heels of heavy boots. Several portions of three-square file have also been picked up.’

27 For example the Manchester City News, 6 April 1929, under the headline ‘Tales of a magistrates' court’ reported: ‘Mr Bell, clerk to the Manchester Justices, recalled a magistrate with an imperfect knowledge of the motor-car, who was trying a case in which a man was summonsed for not having a proper silencer fitted to his car. Having been told that the noise was caused through gas passing through the exhaust, the magistrate observed that “it was very important that Corporation gas should not be used in this way”.’ (My thanks to Dr Barbara Weinberger for this reference.) It was also possible for motoring cases to come before the civil courts as described in A. P. Herbert's ‘Haddoc k v. Thwale: what is a motor car’ in Misleading cases. Herbert's judges revive an d extend the law of deodand by ordering M r Thwale's motor-car to be destroyed. See also Spencer, J. R., ‘Motor-cars and the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher: a chapter of accidents in the history of law an d motoring’, Cambridge Law Journal, XLII (1983), 65–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar. My thanks to Dr Steve Hedley for bringing this to my notice.

28 See, for example, Illustrated London News, 25 July 1903, p. 128 and 10 Oct. 1903, p. 543; and Punch 14 Oct. 1903, p. 261 and 8 Sep. 1909, p. 179.

29 C.C.A., Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1884–1908, fo. 432. To Mr Gilliat, 22 Aug. 1905.

30 C.C.A., Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1906–1915, fo. 161. ToJ. Miller, 29 Jan. 1909.

31 Ibid. fo. 2. To H. Duberley, ig June 1906.

32 Ibid. fo. 14. To Mr (?) Balfour, 7 Sep. 1906.

33 C.A.A., Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1884–1908, fo. 416–17. Copy of letter from O. St Maur Forestier, Doncaster, 22 May 1905; ibid. fo. 415. To Forestier, 24 May 1905; and see inter alia Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1906–1915, fo. 208. To H. Hunter, 5 Aug. 1910.

34 Justice of the Peace, LXXI (1907), 557Google Scholar.

35 C.C.A., Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1884–1908, fo. 377–8. To Mr Hawn, 12 Oct. 1904.

36 C.C.A., Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book, 1906–1915, fo. 30. To SJC, 7 Jan. 1907.

37 See, for example, ibid. fo. 209, To J. Lumb, 5 Aug. 1910; and fo. 293, To Rev. Canan Masterman, 17 July 1912.

38 Hunts County News, 5 Oct. 1907.

39 Plowden, , Motor car, pp. 43–4Google Scholar.

40 Barty-King, Hugh, The A.A. A history of the first 75 years of the Automobile Association (Basingstoke, 1980), p. 42Google Scholar. But it was not just employed ‘scouts’ who gave warnings of speed traps; see, for example, the case of William Farmer Little who, according to his solicitor, acted out of ‘sheer good nature’ in warning motorists of a speed trap near Croydon, , Justice of the Peace, LXX (1906), 210Google Scholar.

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42 Keir, David and Morgan, Bryan, Golden milestone: 50years ofthe AA (London, 1955), p. 33Google Scholar. The Royal Automobile Club also employed scouts, but it was, in its early years, essentially a ‘gentlemen's club’ and not a defensive organization like the AA.

43 Automotor Journal, 3 July 1909, p. 791, and 10 July 1909, p. 824.

44 Quoted in Plowden, , Motor car, pp. 99Google Scholar.

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47 Automotor Journal, 4 Sep. 1909, pp. 1062–5. For local comment on the boycott in Surrey see in particular Surrey and Hants Mews 14 Aug. 1909, p. 2.

48 Justice of the Peace, LXIII, Reports (1909), 88–90Google Scholar; however the ruling was subject to much attention an d was reversed in July 1929 by the Dresden Appeal Court which decided: ‘The defendant through his warning, did not imperil public order, but rather promoted it, in that he contributed to the removal of the disturbance of public order caused through reckless driving.’ Quoted in ibid, XCII (1929), 474. The AA responded to the Betts vs. Stevens decision by instructing their scouts not to salute motorists whose car had an AA badge when the police were about. AA members were told that they should always stop a scout who failed to salute and demand the reason for his failure. Keir and Morgan, op cit. pp. 41–4. A proposal that ‘the persecuted automobilist’ might also consider boycotting Huntingdonshire because the activity of Chichester's men, was received with satisfaction by the leader writer of the Hunts County News (14 Aug, 1909). ‘We welcome the reasonable motorist, and will be the first to admit the injustice of the abuse showered on this “tainted” county. As for the road hog, well if he decides to remove his patronage to “cleaner shires” we do not fancy it will be the people of Huntingdonshire who will complain.’.

49 Hansard, 9, 18 Aug. 1909, col. 1502.

50 Automotor Journal, 16 Oct. 1909, pp. 239–40.

51 Plowden, , Motor car, p. 95Google Scholar.

52 C.A.A. Hunts, constabulary, chief constable's letter book 1906–1915, fo. 71. To W. R. Jeffreys, sec. of motor union, 21 July 1907; and fo. 287. Circular to chairman of petty sessions, 27 May 1912.

53 King, Barty, The A.A. p. 122Google Scholar; Keir, and Morgan, , 50 years of the A.A., p. 51Google Scholar.

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57 Justice of the Peace, LXXXIX (1925), 260Google Scholar; for similar cases see ibid, XC (1926), 538 and ibid, XCI (1927), 468.

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60 Aldcroft, Derek, The inter-war economy: Britain 1919–39 (London, 1970), pp. 182–7Google Scholar; Pollard, Sidney, The development of the British economy 1914–1980, 3rd edn (London, 1983), pp. 60–61Google Scholar.

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63 Stenson Cooke addressed the chief constable's association in 1922 and 1925; E. H. Fryer, the deputy secretary of the A A addressed them in 1924. See the printed Reports of the annual general meetings of the chief constables' association; C C A. Hunts constabulary, chief constable's letter book 1918–1964, fos. 410, 465, 555, 617 and 695.

64 Times, 25 Jan. 1930, p. 13; 6 Feb. 1930, p. 10; 19 Feb. 1930, p. 10.

65 Report of the royal commission on police powers and procedure, Cmd. 3297 (1929), p. 81.

66 Reports of H.M. inspectors of constabulary for the year ended 2g September 1928, pp. 7–8.

67 Staffordshire constabulary archives, chief constable's memo book 1926–1931, fo. 23, Memo (all supts) 11 June 1928.

68 Ibid. fo. 62, memo (all stations) 27 Sep. 1929, reproducing memos of Dec. 1927 and 11 June 1928.

69 Daley, Harry, This small cloud: a personal memoir (London, 1987), p. 103Google Scholar; Lyscomb, Edward, ‘London Policemen’, pp. 43–44Google Scholar. (Photocopied MS in my possession; additional copy deposited with Metropolitan Police Archive).

70 Justice of the Peace, XCII (1928), 570 and 678Google Scholar; ibid, XCIII (1929), 246 and 326.

71 Tripp, H. Alker, ‘Police and public: a new test of police quality’ Police Journal, 1 (1928), 529–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar, quotation at p. 533; the problem was similarly addressed by Maurice Tomlin, formerly Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, in Police and public (London, 1936), pp. 110–15Google Scholar.

72 Daily Mail 10 Apr. 1928, p. 11 and 14 Apr. 1928, p. 10.

73 Justice of the Peace, LXXXIX (1925), 452Google Scholar. See also ibid, XC (1926), 478.

74 Emsley, Clive, The English police: a social and political history (Hemel Hempstead, 1991) pp. 152–4 and 156Google Scholar.

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77 Lt. Col. Packard, J. A. A., ‘Some developments in street accident prevention’, Chief constables' association: report of general conference 19th June 1930, and special general conference, soth June 1930, pp. 49–62Google Scholar, quotation at p. 59.

78 Hansard, 235, 10 Feb. 1930, cols. 1207–8.

79 Dixon, , Prohibition to regulation, p.258Google Scholar.

80 See, for example, the case of Addington in the West Riding raised in the Commons by Isaac Foot, 19 Apr. 1934, Hansard, 288, col. 194.

81 Ibid. 235, 10 Feb. 1930, cols. 12036ff; for direct references to the problem of definition see cols. 1282 and 1292. For a general discussion of the origins of the bill and its progress through parliament see Plowden, op. cit. pp. 249–62.

82 SirPiggott, Henry H., ‘The Road Traffic Act, 1930’, Chief constables' association: report of the general conference, 18th June 1931, and special general conference, 19th June 1931, pp. 18–33, at P.27Google Scholar.

83 Branson, Noreen and Heinemann, Margo, Britain in the 1930s (London, 1971), p. 245Google Scholar.

84 Metropolitan police archives, MS book 554.85, pp. 4 and 5.

85 Hansard, 288, 10 Apr. 1934, cols. 171 ff. For the progress of the bill in general see Plowden, op. cit. pp. 275–81.

86 SirDixon, Arthur L., ‘The home office and the police between the two world wars’ (unpublished, 1966, copy in police staff college library, Bramshill), pp. 185–6Google Scholar.

87 The legislation established driving tests, insurance requirements, pedestrian crossings and the thirty miles an hour limit.

88 Keir, and Morgan, , 50years of the A.A., p. 70Google Scholar. Hansard, 288, 10 Apr. 1934, col. 176. It is also worth noting that the Royal Automobile Club was providing scouts to assist different police forces in traffic control in the 1930s.

89 See, for example, Meek, Victor, Cops and robbers (London, 1962), especially pp.67–9 and 71–2Google Scholar.

90 There were similar problems over defining a driver as ‘drunk’, at least during the 1920s and 1930s, see DrRimmer, Ralph, ‘The problem of the intoxicated driver’, Chief constables' association: report of the general conference, 17th June 1937, and special general conference, 18th June 1937, pp. 74–102Google Scholar.

91 Justice of the Peace, XCI (1927), 908Google Scholar.

92 Hansard, 235, 10 Feb. 1930, col. 1292.

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94 David Dixon makes a similar point with reference to the figure of the bookmaker who was the target of the 1906 Betting Act. Dixon, , Prohibition to regulation, p. 37Google Scholar.

95 Class assumptions appear to have played a part in the way that the judges decided civil cases relating to damage inflicted by motor vehicles. See Spencer, J. R., ‘Motor-cars and the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher: a chapter of accidents in the history of law and motoring’, Cambridge haw Journal, XLII (1983), 76–7Google Scholar.