Police records

Mention of police accommodation in Coventry prior to WW2 {in another thread) reminded me of a ship`s captain I sailed with in 1957/58. We were on the West African trade and I was his Assistant Purser and we met regularly. He was a larger than life colourful character with a fine beard and waxed ended moustache. From my discharge book he knew I came from Coventry and mentioned to me that he had worked as a police constable in the city, I assume pre-war. He was a Welshman so I don`t know if he would have served as a PC and then gone to sea or perhaps it could have been a period in the middle of his early sea service as there was a time of depression in the shipping industry when companies were laying up ships in rivers and sea lochs around this country and the crews would have had to find temporary work ashore. I can remember his full name (it is unforgettable), is it possible to verify his story through say census or police records?.

Roger, I got the previous information from the newspaper archives, there may be something to help you on there.

Thanks Heathite and Annewiggy, I followed your advice and started looking for Police Registers or archives on line and soon found impossibility for the amateur detective. So I threw caution to the wind and typed into my browser the chap's full name "Clifford Stanley Harbottle O`Sullivan" - (told you he was a Welshman) and blow me down there was an immediate reaction. A notice said "you mean the Aureol" and pointed me to another historical type site of which I am a member "Ships Nostalgia" So there you are the chap`s name is already out there in public, pity it didn`t help me with an answer to my question. However, someone had already observed "he had an eye for the ladies" - I had heard tell

In 1939 he was living in Cardiff, listed as a second mate, mercantile marines. He died in 1991 in the Wirral.

Thanks Annewiggy for finding that info - it doesn`t surprise me as I am only thinking there would be a period before 1939 when shipping was really in the doldrums, but I know it did recover in time for the war. I take it this info doesn`t preclude his being in Coventry Police Records