5. Research services at the Essex Police Museum

Whether you are researching your family history or Essex Police, the museum may be able to help you. We have a large collection of service records for officers who served over 80 years ago. More recent records can be made available on request.

The release of information is strictly controlled. Nothing is released on personnel who are still living unless written permission is granted by the individual giving authority to release such information.

To request a service record please contact us via email with details about the record you wish to obtain.

If you wish to purchase a record of service please email us with details about the record you require. If we have the record of service It will contain the following information about an individual:

  • Personal details including date and place of birth, family and previous occupation
  • Rank
  • Dates of service
  • Where they served
  • Training
  • Pay
  • Commendations
  • Misconducts
  • Sickness
  • Reason for Leaving

Our database includes records from:

  • Police officers in the Essex County Constabulary from the 1880s to present day
  • Police officers who served in the Colchester Borough Police and transferred to the Essex County Constabulary in 1947
  • Police officers serving in Southend Borough Police 1914 – 1969
  • Police War Reserves – World War II
  • Women Police Auxiliaries – World War II

A fee of £20 contributes to the costs of storage facilities to ensure our archives are preserved for future generations.

Due to a series of estrangements that occurred during my childhood I lost all contact with my extended family. Thanks to all the help I have received from the Essex Police Museum I have discovered four of my ancestors.
One of them was being researched by another individual only a week before my request. I asked for my contact details to be passed on to them, and later that day I had a telephone call.
He said “This is your cousin Edmund speaking!”
Since then Edmund and I have met up and we speak regularly on the telephone. We have become close friends.
I have been able to fill in large chunks of knowledge – I feel I have got my family back.
Margaret-Mary Philips

You may find more information by searching through copies of the Essex Police newspaper, and downloading our History Notebooks.