Indian Civil Service Association

History of the Indian Police (UK) Association

The Indian Police, known also as the Indian Imperial Police, was created in 1861. The Indian (Imperial) Police Association, more usually known as the Indian Police Association, was formed during the later years of the nineteenth century. Its objects were “to safeguard the position and privileges and to promote the departmental interest of its members.” All members of the IP, whether active or retired, were eligible for membership. Despite the increasing recruitment of Indians into the IP after the Great War the majority of the members were British, and on their retirement most of them returned to the UK. So it was not long before a Home Branch was formed to maintain their links with the parent Association in India and with each other. The Home Branch organised the annual dinner – one, during the 1920s, welcoming the Prince of Wales as guest of honour - and tea party, while the associated Dinner Club met more frequently.

At the independence of India in 1947 most British officers left the IP (although some continued to serve in the newly-constituted Indian Police Service until the 1960s) and many returned to the UK. Their careers interrupted and the status of their pensions uncertain, they looked to the Association to represent their interests vis-a-vis the UK and Indian governments, and to provide some guidance on employment opportunities.

It soon became apparent that the Home Branch of the Association was not appropriate for this role. It was therefore agreed to wind up the Home Branch and to create a new Association that would be separate from the Association in India. (The latter continues to this day to represent the interests of members of the Indian Police Service in India).

The Indian Police (UK) Association was formed in 1948, with a membership of some 600 former officers. While maintaining the social activities of the Home Branch, its main purpose was to persuade the UK government to pay IP pensions in sterling, from the UK, an objective finally achieved in 1971.

During the late 1960s the Association commissioned Sir Percival Griffiths, late of the Indian Civil Service, to write a history of the Indian Police. (A previous, briefer history by J C Curry dated from 1932). Many former IP officers contributed to Sir Percival's research, their submissions now lodged with the British Library. “To Guard my People: the history of the Indian Police” was published in 1971. Later submissions, some by the wives of IP officers, were included in a short book, “Duties and Diversions: vignettes of policing in the United Provinces and elsewhere in India”, published by the Association in 1987.

Following the resolution of the pensions issue the Association reverted to a purely social role. Its long-serving honorary secretary, George Walker, continued to organise the annual lunch and dinner meetings, and to issue regular Circulars to the members. As the number of members declined it was agreed to accept widows and children of IP officers into membership, and when Walker retired in 1993 he was succeeded by the son of an IP officer. Some ten years later the Association and the ICSA decided to join forces for their annual lunch in London, presaging the merger of the two associations in 2010.