Britain’s First Black Policeman John Kent
- Monday, 28 October 2019
Research carried out by former Cumbria Police Officer Ray Greenhow has identified that Britain’s first black police officer served his first period of duty between 1835 & 1837 in Maryport. That officer, John Kent, was the son of a freed slave from west Africa who worked for the Senhouse family in the Carlisle area in the 1770’s. It takes little to imagine the difficulties he must have faced at that time, in terms of tolerance & respect for racial diversity.
