October is Black History Month, so every day during October I will be posting up an introduction to an historical person of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.

John Kent (1805-1886) was a British police constable in Carlisle and is reported to be the first black police officer in Britain. He served seven years in this office before being dismissed in 1844. He then became a court bailiff, then a Parish Constable at Longtown.

Until 2006 it was thought that Britain’s first black police officer was Norwell Roberts of the Metropolitan Police, though Astley Lloyd Blair joined Gloucestershire Constabulary as a Special Constable in 1964.

Kent was the eighth child of a seaman who worked on the estate of a colonial civil service worker in the West Indies. Kent’s father is believed to have arrived in Britain at Whitehaven, and worked in service with a family who considered him a slave. He was later given his freedom and went to sea.

As a constable he was known among city residents as Black Kent and this nickname was used by adults to scare unruly children. He had some notable achievements as a constable, but 6 December 1844 Kent arrived for duty while intoxicated – common enough in the days before safe drinking water, but he was disciplined and dismissed. He then became a court bailiff and later a parish constable in Eskdale.

Kent returned to work in Carlisle after leaving the police force. At the age of 78, he was employed as an attendant by the London and North Western Railway Companies, working in the waiting rooms at Citadel station.

Kent died in 1886 in Carlisle, and was buried in Carlisle Cemetery.

More about John Kent at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kent_(police_officer)