‘The Youngest Chief Constable ever’

In 1892 Joseph Davison Sowerby, aged 29 years, was appointed Chief Constable of the Plymouth Police force having previously served 11 years with the Leeds Police. He immediately set about cleaning up the city, tackling a range of criminal offences and behaviours and quickly earned the respect of local dignitaries and the watch committee as an effective law enforcer. This paper explores and evaluates some of the initiatives, campaigns and directives that he introduced to establish a more effective police response to the behavioural problems of the day and especially his focus on those activities perceived as immoral. Observations and comment will be made on the extent to which his particular personality and character traits represents and conforms to or differs from that of the model Chief Constable past and present .