TOPIC:

..... and the scourge of the unlawful residents of Smethwick.

Joseph Steele was born on 14th September 1866 in Kidsgrove, a small coal mining town in north Staffordshire. He was baptised exactly a month later in the Parish Church.

His parents were John Steele & Rebecca Wood and they married in 1851 and Joseph was the fourth of five children surviving at the time of 1871 census. However, their father had died a year earlier when Joseph was only 3. The 1871 census gives widowed Rebecca’s occupation as “coal miner” along with that of her three eldest sons aged 17, 15 & 12. In 1860 the minimum age for working underground in a coal mine was raised from 10 to 12 but women working underground was made illegal nearly two decades earlier. So presumably Rebecca was a surface worker or did the enumerator make an error?

By the time of the 1881 census Rebecca had remarried to a “Blast Furnace Keeper” and Joseph was living with her, his stepfather and his younger sister, still in Kidsgrove.

On 23rd May 1885 Joseph attested at Lichfield, mid Staffordshire to 12 years of service in the Army, 7 on active service and 5 in reserve, possibly to escape a life underground. Although his attestation papers show he had had previous military experience as a militiaman with the 3rd Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment he was allocated to the 2nd Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers as Private 1021. His papers also show he correctly gave his age as 18 years and 8 months, he was 5 feet 7¼ inches tall, weighed 9 stone 10 lbs and had hazel eyes and brown hair.

After just over 16 months home service Joseph embarked for India on 5th October 1886 where he was to stay for just over 6 years. Whilst in India he qualified for his 1st and 2nd Good Conduct pay rises but does not seem to have been involved in any specific campaigns. He arrived back in Blighty on 10th November 1892 and the day after elected to extend his period in the Army Reserve from 5 to 9 years. Having completed nearly 7 and a half years of active service he was duly discharged to the Army Reserve on 5th December 1892.

Two years later Joseph received the first of his mentions in the Smethwick Telephone (local paper) on 8th December 1894 following his appearance in the Magistrates Court as Police Constable Steele. A month earlier Joseph, actually stationed at Bilston and acting under instructions, had three times visited the Boot and Slipper Public House in Rolfe Street, Smethwick, dressed as a solider to avoid suspicion, and observed cards being played for money and ascertained that the landlord was fully aware this was happening on his premises. One other witness supported his evidence but others declared there was no gambling involved. The Magistrates determined that gambling had taken place to the knowledge of the landlord, who was duly fined 10 shillings with £1 19s 6d costs, but he was allowed to keep his license. This rather banal case occupied the best part of half a column in the newspaper! Below the Boot & Slipper about a decade after Joseph had it staked out (Photograph courtesy of Tony Hitchmough in “Hitchmough’s Black Country Pubs”, 2013.)



The next year Joseph was transferred to Smethwick and made further appearances in the Magistrates’ Court – October 1895 regarding a drunk & disorderly case; March 1896 regarding a case of theft of fish from a fishmonger’s on the High Street; April 1898 regarding a case of being drunk in charge of a horse and trap on the High Street.

The Saturday, 10th February 1900 edition of the Smethwick Telephone carried the following article:

ANOTHER SMETHWICK POLICEMAN CALLED UP.

P.C. Joseph Steele, a first class Reservist of the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, received notice on Sunday to rejoin his regiment at Bury on Thursday. The officer has been on the reserve force for about eight years, and therefore had not much longer to serve. Steele has been attached to the Smethwick Police Force for five years, and during this time had gained the respect and goodwill of his colleagues. At an inquest on Monday, at which P.C. Steele was Coroner’s Officer, the foreman (Mr J. S. Round) said it was the jury’s unanimous wish that he should wish Steele “good luck and a happy return”. They were all sorry it had become necessary for him to be called to rejoin the colours, and his many friends in the borough he was sure, would heartily join in that expression for his safety. The Coroner also joined in this tribute to Steele’s good conduct, and said he had always found him a most obliging officer. On Thursday morning Inspector Hodkinson presented to Steele a purse containing 25 shillings, which had been subscribed by the officers and men.

His date of recall is interesting – 8th February 1900. A fortnight earlier the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers had been in the centre of the action at Spion Kop and suffered severe losses – “3 officers killed, 5 wounded, about 40 men killed, 100 wounded, and some missing”. Had Joseph missed an earlier recall because it was 7 years since he had been an active soldier whereas for most Reservists it was less than 5. After Spion Kop, was it “needs must” and Joseph can be counted a lucky man for not being recalled earlier?

By the time Joseph joined up with his battalion in South Africa the relief of Ladysmith had been achieved and they were then involved in various actions in the Transvaal and Natal. Joseph returned to Blighty on 12th May 1902 before the conflict ended and in advance of the bulk of his battalion. This was because he had completed his commitment to the Army and he was fully discharged on 22nd May 1902, the 17th anniversary of his original enlistment. His 17 years comprised 7 years of active service, followed by 5 years in reserve and 3 of the additional 4 years he had committed to in reserve and the fourth in action plus an additional year in action because the Country was at war – soldiers in those days needed to read the small print on their attestation papers! Put another way and in round figures, of his 17 years in the Army, 1 was spent in service at home, 8 in service overseas (India 6 & South Africa 2) and 8 in reserve. He did not receive a medal for his service in India but he did receive two for his service in South Africa - the Queen’s South Africa Medal with 4 clasps (“Cape Colony”, “Orange Free State”, “Transvaal” & “Laing’s Nek”) and the King’s South Africa Medal with 2 clasps (“South Africa 1901” & “South Africa 1902”). (The Medal Rolls contain a double error – they have Private 1021 as H Steele and initially I thought he was Private 907 J Steele. Further examination showed 907 could not be “my” man partly because his service records showed his true surname was Steel.)

By early 1903 Joseph was again patrolling the streets of Smethwick and he made two appearances in court that year reported in the Smethwick Telephone. The first in February resulted from a tightening in the licensing laws and the Magistrates wishing to make examples of those continually causing a “nuisance” owing to their drinking habits. Police Constable Steele acted as witness against the first man to be added to the Smethwick “Black List” who, for his anti-social behaviour involving three previous convictions, received a jail sentence of fourteen days with hard labour. The following month he was involved in successfully prosecuting a “Major” Flavell, obviously a local character, for using obscene language in “his own home” for which he received a fine of £1 9s 6d including costs.

The Smethwick Telephone then went quiet on the activities of Police Constable Joseph Steele but In the first half of 1904 he married Florence Sarah Cooper in Smethwick. Florence was nearly ten years younger than Joseph and born & raised in Smethwick. The 1901 census shows her living at 70 Broomfield, Smethwick with her parents and siblings and working as a “Bedstead Lacquerer”. Their first child, Arthur was born in Brewood, Staffordshire in 1905 and their second, Albert in Smethwick in 1907. At the time of the 1911 census the family were living in nearby Wednesbury at 37 Hydes Road. Joseph and Florence were to have at least two further children, both born in Wednesbury - John born in 1915 and Florence junior born in 1917.

In 1911 Police Constable Steele made his final appearances in the Smethwick Telephone. The April 1911 case is of present day interest and some amusement:

NOISE OR SPEED

Charles Thomlins, of Cambridge Road, was fined 26s 6d including costs for driving a motor-car to the danger of the public. Police-constable Steele said he saw the defendant driving a motor car at over twenty miles an hour in the High Street. This evidence was corroborated by an independent witness. The defendant pleaded that the car, a second-hand one, was defective, and could not travel at more than twelve miles an hour. It was a very noisy car and this was perhaps mistaken by the witness for speed. He said that there was no danger to the public because the car made such a noise that it could be heard a hundred yards away; in fact, there was never any necessity to blow the horn.

Author’s notes on speed limits: From 1865 to 1896 “locomotives on the highway” were limited to 2 mph in a populated area and 4 mph elsewhere. In 1896, the maximum speed limit was increased to 14 mph and the first London to Brighton run celebrated this. In 1903 the speed limit was increased to 20 mph but it was widely ignored and abolished in 1930. From 1930 to the 1936 there was no speed limit but then the 30 mph speed limit was introduced for “built-up areas” which were defined as having street lamps no further apart than 200 yards. These days many councils have passed by-laws to introduce local 20mph limits, especially near schools. From September 2023 a 20 mph for all built up areas in Wales will be introduced.

Joseph’s final case reported in the Smethwick Telephone of 1st April 1911 involved James White being sent to jail for one month with hard labour for stealing coal from a canal boat belonging to the Birmingham & Midlands Tramways Ltd.

By the start of WW1 Joseph was 48 years old and because he became a father relatively late in life his eldest son was only 9. So, WW1 left the family unscathed but this was not to be the case for WW2.

The September 1939 Register found Joseph & Florence still living in Wednesbury but now at 44 Merryhurst Road. Their youngest child, Florence was still living at home. Joseph’s occupation was given as “Police Constable - retired” and young Florence’s as “Shorthand Typist, Book Keeper & General Office Clerk”, obviously a busy young lady.

Joseph passed away on 13th April 1944 aged 77 and still living at 44 Merryhurst Road in Wednesbury. Thanks to Rob Dickens, an active member of Find-a-Grave, the author is able to show what remains of Joseph’s grave in Wood Green Cemetery, Wednesbury which tells us something of his son John.



During WW2 John served in the Military Police Corps. The CGWC website tells us he died on 6th November 1944, was the son of Joseph & Florence Steele of Wednesbury and husband of Enid Steele of Wednesbury. His grave, pictured below, is one of only two military graves in the Vlijmen Roman Catholic Churchyard in Holland. His rank is given as Lance-Corporal.



One does feel for Florence who just over six months after losing her husband had to cope with losing one of her four children. I cannot definitely say when Florence passed away but the death of a Florence S Steele aged 89 was registered in Northampton in Q1 1966. The age is exactly right and she had possibly moved to Northampton to be near one of her surviving children in her old age.

The author was once told off by a policeman for obstructing the pavement of Smethwick High Street with his bicycle but he can definitely vouch that it was not Police Constable Joseph Steele formerly of the Lancashire Fusiliers.