ORAL HISTORY SEARCH
Grosvenor Square 17 March 1968 Sound Clips
In June 2007 we received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and since then we have recorded oral history testimony from 75 Officers (1930s to present), diverse in rank, role, gender, age and ethnicity. We have captured not just their working lives stories but also a multiplicity of insights into London's communities, their constantly evolving character, and their traditions. These are available to informal and formal researchers at the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Historical Collection, Empress State Building.
This large sound archive has been condensed into a 6 hour accessible, narrated, CD - The Coppers' Story - to facilitate access by non-traditional and non-professional heritage audiences. This CD is supported by a booklet containing a general introduction to Metropolitan Police History, a glossary of police terms and slang, a description of contents and contact details. A copy of The Coppers' Story has been sent to all London's Local History Libraries/Archive Centres.
As part of our website we have produced an online a searchable catalogue to the sound archive, with a complex search facility. Sound excerpts and images, as they relate to each track, will in due course be added. Five interviews of Officers joining the MPS in 1919 have also been gifted to our project by NARPO. We have digitally remastered, catalogued and included them in our archive taking the number of interviews to 73. Our shortest interview is half an hour long conducted via Skype. Our longest is 11 hours. The average length is 3 hours.
On our website we have created a Learning Zone including Lesson Plans aimed at Rights and Responsibilities - Citizenship KS3 Year 9.
We hope this work will add to recording and access to the history of the Metropolitan Police. The FOMPHC will continue due to a grant from NARPO-London Branch. More than 150 former and serving Officers have volunteered to be interviewed. If you are waiting to be interviewed, we will be in contact. This project is about every-day policing. So if you didn't arrest the Great Train Robbers or didn't police a famous Cup Final, don't be put off. If you wish to be a volunteer on the project please contact us. All enquiries to: oralhistory@fomphc.org.uk