Description: A retirement presentation to Inspector Thomas Joseph (Joe) Kennedy of the Derbyshire County Police Force held in the cafe at the Matlock Cinema House on the corner of Causeway Lane and Steep Turnpike. This event took place a few weeks after his official retirement on 31 December 1934 and involved the presentation of an illuminated address on behalf of the people of Matlock together with a cheque for £100.
The illuminated address can be seen here supported on the table (see DCHQ000985A for an illustration of the address) with Inspector Kennedy to the left. Seated is Mrs Dora Kennedy, his second wife, previously Dorothy Fraser. The other figures are (from Left to Right) C W Waghorn, G Slade, unknown, Reverend Urling-Smith, Tom Moorley, W C Eldridge, Francis Wildgoose (behind), Mrs Giles (?), (Inspector Kennedy), unknown, unknown (behind), Mrs Dove, Lubin Wildgoose (holding illuminated address), Reverend E V Blackburne, unknown (behind), unknown, unknown (behind), John Joseph Lynch (in plus-fours), Josephine Kennedy, R H Rothwell (with spectacles), and Mary Patricia Kirwan.
Inspector Kennedy was born at Acton Burnell near Shrewsbury on 16 May 1884 and joined the Derbyshire Constabulary on 15 June 1903 under the terms of the 1890 Police Act. As a Constable he served at Fairfield, Matlock, Chesterfield, Buxton, Duffield and Matlock Bridge, becoming a Merit Constable six years later. In 1911 he transferred to Belper and then after a further three years to Baslow where he spent most of the First World War, becoming a good Class Constable in 1917 and then a Sergeant a year later when he moved to Alvaston. Further transfers to Melbourne, Fairfield and Buxton followed. On 1 July 1924 he was promoted to Inspector and made his final transfer, returning to Matlock where he took charge of the Sub-Division. He retired with 'Exemplary Character' and on a final salary of £360 per annum a decade later after 31 years service during which he had received a total of 14 commendations from Magistrates and his Chief Constable.
With the outbreak of World War Two, Joe Kennedy served as a member of the Police First Reserve from 1939 until 1946 and from 1947 to 1963 he was Secretary of the Association of Police Pensioners, an organisation he remained actively involved with up to his death, aged 92, on 25 October 1976.
Picture the Past is grateful to Mr John F Kirwan for supplying the information given above.