Description:Members of course no. 181 who were resident at No. 4 District Police Training Centre, Mill Meece, from July to October 1954. The site was formerly the 'H.M.S. Fledgling' W.R.N.S. Training Centre. After it was vacated in 1948 the police took it over from 1949 until 1960.
The Staffordshire recruits in this group photograph are P.C. Simeon Whitehouse (back row, far left), P.C. Peter Atkin (back row, second left) and P.C. John Gittings (back row, second right). One of the instructors is Sergeant Barrett of Stoke City Police (front row, third from right).
Second from right in the middle row is Woman Sergeant Rosamond Assiamah of the Gold Coast force (now Ghana) who was W.P.C. No. 1 in that force. Second from left in the front row is her colleague Corporal Ottilia Milne Decowski. They both went on to do an instructor's course before returning to the Gold Coast.
The centre trained newly appointed police constables from Northamptonshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and the city and borough forces within those counties. Women polices constables from all over England, except the London metropolitan police, were also trained there. The courses lasted for 13 weeks and covered crtiminal and traffic law, powers of arrest and general police duties.