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(詳細はMinistry of Defence Police (MDP) in the United Kingdom can trace its origins back to 1686, and has gone through a number of evolutions over the centuries to achieve its present day form. Until late 1965, the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force were controlled by separate departments: the Board of Admiralty, the Army Board and the Air Ministry respectively, each had its own Cabinet Minister. In that year it was decided that the three services should be placed under the control of one Minister of State for Defence, and the present Ministry of Defence was formed. The oldest centrally controlled military force in Britain is the Royal Navy; it was in 1686 that Samuel Pepys instigated a force of civilians to protect the Royal Naval dockyards. Although it wasn’t until the early 19th century that Great Britain had an organised civilian police force, in 1834 the Royal Navy Dockyards were given their own uniformed police service. As Britain’s armed forces became more centrally organised in the late 19th century, other service establishments were allocated a police presence. The First World War brought about the formation of separated Army and Naval civilian police forces, to be joined in 1940's by the Air force Constabulary during the Second World War. ==1686: Porters, rounders, warders and watchmen== Since medieval times there has always been an Army, until comparatively recent times, it consisted of separate bodies raised on a territorial basis; the formation of the Royal Air Force occurred only in the 20th century, after the development of manned human flight. The Royal Navy, as a department of central government, has existed since 1600 and as early as 1686 records show that the Admiralty was aware of the need for an organisation to prevent crime within its dockyards. At that time, the Secretary for the Affairs of the Admiralty of England (Samuel Pepys), delivered to the special commissioners of the Navy an instruction which included the following: "To enquire after and make use of all means for preventing the embezzlement of any of our Stores, and to that end... to be frequent in visiting the Workmen at their departure out of our said Yards, keeping a Strict and Severe Eye upon the respective Porters of the same, and to the attendance given at the Gates... and lastly to be as frequent as he may, and the distance of Places will admit, in his nightly rounds in and about each of our said Yards, for discovering any unfaithfulness or neglect that may be found in the Watch, charged with the safety of our Stores during that Season". As a result of Pepys' instructions a force of "Porters, Rounders, Warders and Watchmen" was formed to guard the Naval yards.〔 The roles performed by the first force of "Porters, Rounders, Warders and Watchmen" were as follows: Porters were responsible for identifying visitors and escorting them to the appropriate heads of departments; Rounders patrolled the Yard or, as their name implies, "did the rounds"; Warders were responsible for the keys and backed up the Porters at the gates; Watchmen, who were employed at night only, guarded or watched important buildings or areas. The latter were part-timers, being dockyard employees who remained in the Yard, on a roster basis—every fourth night after carrying out their normal work and received an extra shilling for the duty. The Rounders appear to have been the senior branch of the force as they kept an eye on the other three bodies and frequently reported their misdemeanours to the Commissioner in charge of the Dockyard. Apart from this civilian forces, there existed also a military force of Marines, comprising one Subaltern, a number of Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and 36 Privates. Both the civil and military guards were closely linked and an indication of the economy practised in those days exists, in the form of the Daily Orders Book. The front cover of this book indicated that by reading it in a straight forward manner one would find the order applicable to the Military Guard, but by turning the book upside down and starting at the back the orders for the Civil Guard could be found. Both sets of orders were illuminating and often give examples of professional jealousy. The order book was in great demand by the commissioners during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, a typical order being that issued on 27 January 1793 which read:〔 "A constant look out is to be kept at the gates to prevent admission of two strangers and if the discovery be made of two strangers about 6 feet high, one having a large purple scar upon the right side of his face, both of them speaking English, and appearing to be Englishmen—if within the Gates they are to be stopped and if without some trusty person sent to watch them, and in either case the Commissioner is to be immediately informed thereof". In 1834 this Force was disbanded and the first formal Dockyard Police was formed.〔 There were constant changes in the organisation during the 18th century, caused mainly by the requirement for the Marine Guard to serve overseas but in 1861 this guard was finally abolished... "except at Chatham, Portsmouth and such places as convicts were employed". By comparison with the police arrangements then existing throughout the country, the dockyard system was well organised but its fatal weakness was that the Watchmen and Rounders were still being selected from dockyard workers who performed these tasks in addition to their normal duties and in 1822 the commissioner at Portsmouth reported that: "the night Rounders are men of the very best character selected from the Shipwrights of the Yard" and that "the Warders now at the Yard Gates are the best we have ever had, and by their strict attention to this part of their duty have become very obnoxious to the people in general". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Ministry of Defence Police」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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