Melksham Times Past

A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis

All in the Line of Duty

Samuel Wiltshire was a married man with eight children and his wife Mary was pregnant with their ninth. 

They were living in the Ganes Buildings off Broughton Road. On the evening of 6th June, 1859, Wiltshire was arrested; he was 39 years old and described in the newspaper as a “drunken worthless character.”

Inspector Charles Merrett took him to the lock-up in the Market Place with the assistance of Stephen Brunker, a police constable who lived on Semington Road.

Brunker, aged 45, had not gone many steps from the lock-up when he complained of giddiness in his head, and then collapsed in the arms of the inspector. Medical assistance came within a few minutes, but it was too late. Brunker was dead from a heart attack.

The constable had been in the force since the Wiltshire Constabulary was formed and he was “much respected for his sobriety and strict attention to duty.” He left a wife and six children.

When the County Police Act 1839 was introduced, Wiltshire became the first county to form a county-level police force, with Wiltshire Constabulary being established on Wednesday 13th November 1839 at The Bear Hotel, Devizes, mere hours before Gloucestershire Constabulary, the second county police force formed. As a result, it was then proposed to engage two policemen for the protection of property in Melksham, and their salaries were to be paid by voluntary subscription.

The first constable to die in the line of duty was Enos Molden, who, in 1892, was shot by John Gurd, dubbed ‘The Melksham Murderer’ by the newspapers. Molden was due to retire from the force after serving 29 years, but in the early morning hours, the day of his retirement testimonial, he joined fellow constables searching for escaped criminal Gurd.

The culprit had already shot and killed Henry Richards near Richards’ home on the Spa Road canal bridge in Melksham. Gurd escaped down Semington Road and was on the run for five days until he was caught near the back gate of Longleat. During the struggle of his capture, Gurd’s gun went off and Molden was mortally wounded.

There are many historic examples of local police efforts to keep the peace and too numerous to point out in these paragraphs, especially since the previous article told of the many riots police faced in this town, but I’ll end with one story that jumps out for the reason of the police being “conspicuous by absence.”

Quoting the Devizes Gazette of 28th June 1888 because the reporter tells it far better than I ever could:

“For several weeks past the old town pump, which is such a well-known feature of our Market Place, has been undergoing restoration by order of the Local Board. Upon taking out the old pipe, an inscription was found stating that the pump had been put up by public subscription in 1789 so that next year it would have attained its centenary. The pump now has the advantage of a drinking tank, which will be found of great service to animals, especially during the summer months.

“This trough was put to a somewhat novel use on Friday evening last. The old well-known institution of the ducking stool for scolds and wife-beaters has passed away, but on this evening the trough of the new pump was found to make an excellent substitute for the individual of the latter class. A labouring man who had been drinking, ‘not wisely but too well,’ refused to listen to the entreaties of his wife to go home, and at last brutally struck her. Some of the spectators persuaded the man to go away, but in the short time he returned, and again meeting his wife, he a second time gave her a nasty blow. This striking example of connubial affection was too much for the lookers-on, who, catching up the wretched fellow, bore him to the trough, into which, in spite of his struggles and expostulations, they thoroughly soused him, till he came out dripping from head to foot. The police were conspicuous by the absence and perhaps it was well they were so, for we very much doubt whether the summary punishment thus meted out had not a more salutary effect on the inebriated individual than a fine.”

Pictured; The Wiltshire Constabulary c 1887