Epoch-Making Beginnings to Lingering Death: The Struggle for Control of the Glasgow Police Commission, 1833-46

Established in 1800, the Glasgow Police Commission is of great importance in the context of municipal history. As a specialist authority responsible for public services, the Commission was among the most advanced in Britain. Its wide-ranging achievements in law and order and public amenity provision helped create a new range of essential services in a rapidly expanding city. Moreover, the method of electing its representatives on a rotational ward basis provided a model for municipal reform later in the century. Yet, by the 1840s the Commission's incorporation into local government was keenly and successfully sought by those in influential circles after a bitter and prolonged conflict with commissioners and many lower-middle class/skilled working-class ratepayers. This article will analyse the political and social struggle behind the Commission's demise. Of principal benefit to those interested in police control and municipal governance, the study also uncovers a great deal about political and social representation by examining public attitudes, voting behaviour and electoral trends at annual police elections.