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Sir Arthur Edwin Young
Sir Arthur in 1966

Sir Arthur Edwin Young (born 15 February 1907 – died 20 January 1979) was a very important British police officer. He was the Commissioner of Police for the City of London from 1950 to 1971. He was also the first person to be called the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, instead of Inspector-General. Young helped create the job of Chief Inspector of Constabulary, which oversees all police forces.

In the early 1950s, he played a big part in policing during the time when many countries gained independence from the British Empire. He created a new way of policing that focused on public service. This idea wasn't popular with everyone at first, but it proved to be very successful over time. In the 1960s, he helped make British police recruitment more modern. He also improved the training for senior police officers.

Early Life and School Days

Arthur Young was born in Eastleigh, Hampshire. He was the third of four children. His father, Edwin Young, was a builder. Arthur went to school in Southsea and then Portsmouth Grammar School. He wasn't known for being a great student. However, he really liked the Officers' Training Corps, which was like a military club at school. Later in life, when he returned to his old school to give out prizes, he joked that his parents would have been shocked to see him there, as he never won any awards himself.

When he was just sixteen, he decided to join the Portsmouth Borough Police. His family, especially his mother and grandmother, didn't approve. They thought being a police officer was not a suitable job for someone from a middle-class family. His aunt even made him quit when she married a police superintendent!

Starting His Police Career in Portsmouth

In December 1924, Arthur Young got his first police job. A friend of his father, Sir John Henry Corke, helped him get a special job as a Cadet Clerk in the Chief Constable's office. The Chief Constable, Thomas Davies, advised him to study business and accounting first.

In May 1925, he became a Constable. By April 1932, he was the Coroner's Officer. In June 1932, at only 25 years old, he became the youngest Detective Sergeant in the UK. He worked in the CID (which investigates crimes). He led investigations into serious crimes like murder and fraud. He even led the first UK case of accidental death caused by an aeroplane.

During these years, he was also involved in many royal visits to Portsmouth. When Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, visited in 1937, Young was his personal escort and French interpreter. He also worked on matters of state security, which meant looking for spies. It was also during this time that he developed a love for new police equipment and gadgets.

Young was promoted to Inspector in June 1937. He was put in charge of Portsmouth's Southern Division. In areas like Eastney and Southsea, he worked on traffic problems. He found ways to control traffic better and promote road safety. Young loved driving and owned several fast cars.

Leading the Leamington Spa Police

Arthur Young wanted to lead his own police force. In September 1938, at 31, he became the Acting Chief Constable of Leamington Spa Borough Police. A year later, he got the permanent job. He was one of the youngest Chief Constables ever. In his first nine months, he convinced the council to hire twelve more officers. This was the first increase since 1915, bringing his force to 57 officers for all of Leamington Spa.

He also reorganized the town's fire brigade. He introduced "police pillars," which were like public telephones. People could use them to contact police stations and civil defense posts directly. These pillars also had a flashing red light on top to call patrolling police officers.

In November 1940, he was sent to Coventry for six months after it was heavily bombed during the war. He managed the city's police force. Young started a "good neighbour scheme" for people whose homes were bombed. This idea, which he first tried in Leamington, was later used across the country.

Innovations at Birmingham City Police

Leamington was a very small police force. Young wanted a bigger, permanent role. After applying for several other jobs, he was chosen in September 1941 as the Senior Assistant Chief Constable of Birmingham City Police. This was the second-largest police force in the UK. His job was to handle training and communications, which he was very good at.

In Birmingham, he started new ways of police training. He used examples and demonstrations, which was a new idea in 1941. The Home Office (the government department for policing) was very impressed. He also made Birmingham a leader in using police radios. In 1942, he set up a two-way radio system that connected every police station and police car.

Police Work During World War II

In February 1943, Young was chosen to attend a special course for senior officers at the War Office. Before he finished, he was asked to become an instructor. In June 1943, he became the first leader of the new Police Civil Affairs Training Centre in London. He was given a rank similar to a Lieutenant-Colonel in the army. His job was to train police officers and military police. These officers would help keep law and order in countries that were being freed from Axis control by the Allied forces.

Soon after the training center opened, Young was promoted to Colonel. In July 1943, he moved to North Africa. He became the Senior British Police Officer in the Mediterranean area, waiting for the invasion of Sicily. Young landed in Sicily on the second day of the invasion. He became the Director of Public Safety in the first Allied military government in Italy. In December 1943, he also became the Director of Security. This meant he was in charge of finding saboteurs and enemy agents. He also had to remove officials who supported fascist ideas from public jobs.

In Italy, Young commanded not only British officers but also 120,000 men of the Italian police. He was responsible for all Italian prisons, fire brigades, and civil defense. The methods Young developed in Italy were later used across Allied-occupied Europe. He was most proud of helping to rebuild and reorganize the Carabinieri, which is Italy's national police force. He loved Italy and returned there often for holidays.

Leading the Hertfordshire Constabulary

In 1944, Young became the Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary. He was released from the army in April 1945. He was only 38 years old but had 21 years of experience in different police forces. He was in charge of 515 officers. In Hertfordshire, he worked hard to improve county police forces. He pushed his police authority to spend a lot of money to improve officers' pay and living conditions.

One big issue at the time was police housing. Young convinced his police authority to fund a building program. His goal was for every married officer in the county to have a police house within six years. He made sure that officers' wives were involved in deciding the design of these houses. In 1946, he wrote that he believed the police should be seen as a "police service," not just a "police force." He wanted to make it a respected career and give officers more responsibility.

He also convinced his authority to buy new equipment to make the police force modern and efficient. Hertfordshire was the first force after the war to get a wireless (radio) system. Young adapted his Birmingham radio model for use in rural areas. To make it even better, the Home Office agreed to let the radio network cover more than one county, so Bedfordshire was added.

Around the same time, Young was appointed to a committee. This committee, led by Sir Percy Sillitoe, looked into whether all police forces needed radio networks.

During his time in Hertfordshire, Young also started working closely with James Callaghan. They knew each other from Portsmouth. Callaghan was then a junior minister. They met again on a road safety committee and worked together to add speed limits and improve road markings. Cat's eyes (road reflectors) were a big result of their work. They worked together again when Callaghan became the Home Secretary. It was Callaghan who sent Young to Northern Ireland in 1969 to put the Hunt Report into action.

Working at the Metropolitan Police

Hertfordshire showed that Young was a police chief who got things done. He applied to be chief constable of Kent in 1946 but didn't get the job. However, the Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, was very impressed with him. He appointed Young to a new job as Assistant Commissioner "D" of the Metropolitan Police in London. This was a big deal because it was very unusual for an outsider to get such a high rank in the Met. The Home Secretary knew that the country's police forces were stuck in old ways and needed to be modernized.

However, things didn't go smoothly. The Commissioner, Sir Harold Scott, tolerated him, but other senior colleagues ignored him. Even though Young successfully improved organization, recruitment, training, and communications in his department, it only made the other senior officers dislike him more.

Leading the City of London Police

In March 1950, Young became the Commissioner of Police for the City of London. He was the first former constable to be appointed to this role. He became known as "the policeman's policeman." He always focused on improving pay, working conditions, and professional standards for officers. Those who worked for him found him strong but kind. He didn't like it when he or others failed. He was popular with all ranks of officers in all the forces he led.

Young grew to love the City of London. He enjoyed leading a force that was small enough for him to know every constable well. He also enjoyed the City's social life. He worked hard to make police service more appealing to new recruits. Pay and allowances were increased, housing was modernized, and food services were improved. Uniforms were also made more comfortable and practical.

He also made big changes to career paths. He led a national change in how British police recruited officers. He started special command courses and a fast-track program to attract university graduates. For many years, he directed the interviews for the Senior Command Course, which he had founded. These changes helped talented people get promoted. Young realized that the police could not keep doing things the same way they had for a hundred years. He fought for women to be recruited and promoted. He also opposed the old tradition of bringing senior officers from the armed forces into police leadership roles. He strongly believed that the police should be led by people who started as regular officers, just like Robert Peel had intended. The young man whose own family thought being a policeman was unsuitable dedicated his career to making it a respected profession.

Young also helped convince the 1960 Royal Commission on the Police to create a stronger police inspectorate, even though the Home Office disagreed at first.

Work with the Royal Ulster Constabulary

From November 1969 to 1970, Young was sent to be the last Inspector-General and the first Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland. James Callaghan, who was the Home Secretary at the time, sent him to put the Hunt Report into action. This report introduced the standard British police rank system for Northern Ireland and disbanded the Ulster Special Constabulary, which was a controversial police force.

Other Important Roles

Sir Arthur Young held many other important positions. He led the Police Council for the UK. He also chaired committees for police training centers and education. He was a governor of the Police College and Atlantic College. He was also a member of several other important committees and organizations, including the Royal Humane Society and the National Scout Council. In 1962, he was the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Reforming Colonial Police Forces

One special part of Young's career was his work as a police reformer in British colonies that were facing problems. He went on four such missions:

  • In 1950, he spent a short time in the Gold Coast. He helped plan the role of the police as this colony prepared to become the first British territory in Africa to gain independence.
  • From 1952 to 1953, Young was sent to the Federation of Malaya. He became the Commissioner of Police during the Malayan Emergency, a time of conflict there.
  • In 1954, Young was asked to go to another troubled colony: Kenya. He served as Commissioner of Police during the Mau Mau uprising.

Personal Life and Beliefs

Arthur Young grew up in a family with strong Anglican Christian beliefs. He went to church every Sunday. As a young constable, he patrolled the poor areas and docks of Portsmouth. This experience deeply affected him. He was shocked by the poverty and unfairness he saw. Young became a strong Christian socialist and, very unusually for a chief constable, he voted for the Labour Party his whole life. He often sought advice from church leaders. Later in the 1960s, he even thought about becoming a priest again.

Young was married three times. On 11 April 1939, he married Ivy Ada May Hammond, a nurse. They had one son, Christopher John Young, born in 1941. Ivy died in 1956. Young married Mrs. Margaret Furnival Homan in 1957, but this marriage ended quickly. On 16 April 1970, he married Mrs. Ileen Fryer Turner. He had known her since she was his police driver during the war in Birmingham.

Honours and Awards

Sir Arthur Young received many awards during his career, making him one of the most decorated police officers of his time. He was awarded the King's Police Medal in 1952. He was made a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1953 and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1962. He was knighted in 1965, which means he received the title "Sir." In 1971, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

British Awards

See Also

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