Black History Month: 20 October 2020
John Kent was a British police constable at Maryport and is reported to be the first black police officer in Britain. He served seven years in the office of constable at Carlisle but was eventually dismissed for drunkenness in December 1844, following an earlier suspension. This was common as clean drinking water was a rarity due to diseases like cholera. Kent was credited with several arrests. He provided several accounts in his later years, one of arresting two "coiners". After arresting one suspect, he handcuffed him to the fire grate in his own house. He left an unloaded pistol with his wife, telling her to shoot the prisoner if he tried to escape. Kent then apprehended the second outstanding suspect. Later, he became a court bailiff, then a Parish Constable at Longtown. Until 2006, when a former officer of Cumbria Constabulary discovered Kent's employment records, it was thought that Britain's first black police officer was Norwell Roberts.
Want to find out more about John Kent? Click here for more information, or here for more about Norwell Roberts.
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