BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : BRITAIN FIRST POLICE OFFICER WAS IN THEE 19th CENTURY WHEN IN 1837 JOHN KENT WAS APPOINTED AS A CONSTABLE IN CARLISLE CITY POLICE : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

 BLACK           SOCIAL           HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Britain's 19th-century black police officer

• The Guardian, 

Norwell Roberts, pictured in 1968, was apparently not Britain's first black police officer. Photograph: Fox Photos/Getty

Hugh Muir claims that Britain's first black police officer was in 1967 (A force for change?, G2, 30 January). But 130 years before then, a black man, John Kent, was appointed in August 1837 as constable to the Carlisle city police force, having already served as an appointee to the magistrates in Maryport. My colleague Susan Dench's research shows that Kent probably arrived as a seaman at Whitehaven, where he was given his freedom. It seems likely he was enslaved from a west African port, but proved his ability as a seaman, making several trips across the Atlantic. It is conjectured he was given his surname after his ship, the Kent, which is recorded as a slave ship.

So unusual was the sight of any non-white person in Cumberland at that time that it is believed the cry of "Black Kent's coming!" was often used to frighten mischievous children into better behaviour. Kent continued to work in Carlisle after retiring from decades in the force, and when aged 88 was recorded as an attendant at the London & North Western Company's waiting room (third class) at Citadel station.

None of this dents the thrust of Muir's article. But it shows the road to diversity has been far longer than he imagined.
Robin Smith
Chairman, Historical Association, Cumbria branch