Superintendents & Chief Constables (CC)
1841 – 1858 (circa) Stephen Walter Underhill
1862 – 1893 George Henry List (East Lothian*)
1893 – 1904 Alex Porter (Roxburgh*)
1909 – 1933 John Morren (Roxburgh*)
1933 – 1948 David W. S. Brown
16 May 1930 Berwickshire and Roxburgh amalgamated.
16 May 1948 Selkirk further amalgamated with them.
* Indicates that CCs were responsible for multiple constabularies.
Berwickshire County Constabulary
PS William Erskine Mitchell Courtesy of the Berwickshire News 26 July 1927 and his Great grand-daughter, Sandra.
PS William Erskine Mitchell's
King Edward VII Police (Scotland) Medal 1903
William Erskine Mitchell was born on 5 February 1860 at Launcherhead, in the Parish of Auchterderran in the County of Fife. His mother was Elizabeth Erskine and his father, William Mitchell. His birth was registered by his aunt, Allison Erskine.
He was brought up by his Grand-mother, Isabella Erskine and worked as a Coal Miner in Auchterderran.
In 1883, he married Elizabeth Hardgrove, a Linen Factory worker from Dunfermline.
Two years later in1885, he joined Berwickshire Constabulary and was posted to Eyemouth.
In 1889, William Mitchell was stationed at Gordon Police Station and it was there that two days after the birth of her third child, Elizabeth Hardgrove or Mitchell died.
By the Census of 1891, William was still in Gordon but had been joined by his Aunt Allison who was listed as “Aunt- Housekeeper”.
In 1892, William Mitchell, a Police Constable, married Margaret Harvey, a spinster, in Edinburgh.
Six years later, in 1898, at the Police Station in Eyemouth, James Dalgleish Harvey Mitchell was born. His father was Police Sergeant William Mitchell.
A flavour of his duties can be taken from the following except from the Berwickshire Advertiser of 18 January 1901:
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“…the body of a young woman in a horrible state of decomposition had been found in the Netley Burn between Ayton and Burnmouth Roads, Eyemouth. The police at Eyemouth were informed and Sergeant Mitchell soon arrived
Some of the limbs were missing from the body and Sergeant Mitchell searched the area and found bones and a missing leg nearby. The Deputy Chief Constable, Mr Sim arrived and took part in the investigations.
Sergeant Mitchell took the body to Ayton and after further inquiries concluded that the remains were those of a 17 year old Servant Girl who had been missing from Berwick upon Tweed since the previous Midsummer Day in 1900.”
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By 1911, Sergeant Mitchell and family were living at Coldstream Police Station. There is one document showing him still serving in 1912 aged 52 and with 26 years and 293 days service.
William Mitchell, a Retired Police Sergeant, died on 21 July, 1927 in Edinburgh.
His youngest child, James Dalgliesh Harvey Mitchell, served as an Inspector in Edinburgh City Police in Leith.
Sergeant William Erskine Mitchell
