Criminal registers and photographs
Criminal registers were generated by prison authorities and by the police. From 1871 a register of prisoners for Scotland was kept in Edinburgh by the secretary of the managers of the General Prison at Perth and the Home Secretary was enabled to make regulations for the photographing of all prisoners.[1] These regulations specified the number of photographs to be printed and the persons to whom the photographs should be sent. This use of photography occurred immediately after pioneering work in criminal identification using photography had begun in France during the Paris Commune of 1870-71.
After 1879, a register of prisoners photographed under the 1871 act and liberated each quarter was printed by Her Majesties Stationery Office (HMSO) and circulated quarterly. Also an annual register of habitual criminals was published by HMSO on behalf of Prison Commissioners. Neither of these had photographs but were registers of distinctive marks and peculiarities. Judging by surviving registers the system whereby prison authorities sent out a register of released prisoners and files with photographs of prisoners to police forces did not change until the 1930s.
Under the Habitual Criminals Act, 1869, individuals with more than one conviction were subject to police supervision following their release from prison.[2] The names, addresses and other details of these individuals, sometimes referred to as “ticket of leave prisoners”, were sometimes recorded in “Registers of Returned Convicts”. An example of such a register is held by Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives (reference POL/AC/6/6) which covers the period 1869 to 1939. 60 of the 260 entries within the volume are also accompanied by photographs.
Surviving records of criminals, prisoners and crimes generally fall into one of six types:
1. Formal registers of criminals.
Printed annually and quarterly by HMSO.
2. Records of crimes (sometimes called criminal registers).
These record the crimes reported, the name of the person apprehended, their residence, age, and often their height and other descriptive characteristics, the names of witnesses, the name of the investigating officer, details of court proceedings, outcomes and recovery of any fines. They may cover all crimes reported within a police district or may be restricted to crimes reported to an individual police station.
3. Albums of criminal register entries compiled by a police force.
In most cases where a photograph is part of a much larger entry, running to several pages.
4. Albums of photographs.
With the minimum amount of information about the criminal, compiled by a police force, possibly using the photographs supplied by prison authorities as part of the criminal register entries, or from photographs taken by the police force itself of each prisoner at the time of arrest or release under police supervision.
5. Registers of juvenile offenders compiled by a police force.
Mainly records of juveniles sentenced to punishment by whipping, especially after the Children’s Act 1908, often with a note of the financial costs of carrying out the sentence, such as the fees paid to the medical officer in attendance.
6. Printed notifications under the Licensing (Scotland) Act, 1903.
Details of a person convicted of three or more offences mentioned in the first schedule of the Inebriates Act, 1898, circulated to licensed premises and secretaries of clubs and police forces in counties etc.
Examples of the above records are held by several archives. Perth & Kinross Council Archive holds photographic and conviction records for Perthshire, Perthshire & Kinross-shire and Perth & Kinross constabularies for the periods 1875-1906 and 1915-1955. Glasgow City Archives hold four registers among the records of Strathclyde Police. Of these, two for Glasgow, covering 1910-33 (SR22/63/11-12) do not contain photographs, but two for Dunbartonshire, covering 1903-14 (SR22/77/8-9) do contain photographs. The National Records of Scotland hold several albums, including one for Greenock prison, 1872-1888 (HH12/56/7). Aberdeen City Archives hold two criminal registers compiled by Aberdeen City Police: the first covers prisoners liberated from Perth Prison, 1882-1884, and the second is a ‘register of returned convicts’, 1869-1938, containing notes on the whereabouts of released convicts, and includes photographs of prisoners between 1869 and 1897. Among the records of Dunbarton County Constabulary, held by Glasgow City Archives, are three notifications of prisoners with alcohol addiction under the Licensing (Scotland) Act, 1903 supplied to the Colquhoun Arms Hotel, Rhu (SR22/77/23).
Related Knowledge Base entries
References
[1] Prevention of Crimes Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict., c.112).
[2] Habitual Criminals Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 99)