ALMOST 144 years ago, on October 4, 1856, the justices of the peace in the North Riding of Yorkshire quarter sessions made an inspired choice when they selected Capt Thomas Hill to become the first chief constable of the North Riding constabulary.

He was appointed to create, develop and lead the first standing police force of the North Riding which was established on October 14, 1856.

Indeed, it was a momentous local event and landmark in the history of law and order, from such small beginnings to the giant modern structure. Thomas Hill, the son of Richard Mill JP of Thornton le Dale, had risen to be a captain in the North Yorks Militia and was a soldier through and through with his bearing, efficiency, energy, meticulous attention to detail, organisational ability and practical creativity.

He was the overwhelming choice from very able candidates with a full turn-out of magistrates at the old court house in East Road, Northallerton, who voted as follows: Capt Hill, 82; Maj Straubenzee, 23; Capt McBean, ten and George List, five. The first police accommodation appropriated by the magistrates for Capt Hill was "the house formerly occupied by the Miller at Northallerton" and soon the headquarters of the North Riding police was sited adjacent to the north of the North Riding court house and house of correction.

Initially, the police force was 50 men of all ranks for the whole of the North Riding, which was divided into eight divisions but excluded the boroughs of Scarborough and Richmond who had their own police forces of six and two men respectively.

By September 1857, Capt Hill had doubled his force to 105 whose constables' uniforms consisted of: tunic (frock coat type), trousers, waist belt, great coat, "pork-pie" hat and cape.

Immediately upon appointment he ordered 16 horses and ten "carts" (now known as traps) which became the backbone of the vehicular operation of the force from 1856 onwards - 2,000 square miles of varied terrain without wireless, telephones, motor cars, bicycles or even closed circuit television and computers!

Horses were the key - called "county horses" - and it is interesting that Capt Hill forbade the use of the new phenomenon, the bicycle, in the 1890s because the policeman could not see behind himself properly!

This was a small oversight in an outstanding record in the establishment and enormous progress of the force, operating mainly from newly-built police stations throughout the Riding with the headquarters at Northallerton.

Incidentally, on the subject of bicycles, in October 1897, when the enterprising PC Hardy of South Otterington captured horse thieves in Ripon using his private bicycle, it was speculated in the local press as to whether the bicycle might one day be used as official police equipment.

Capt Hill built up and controlled the fledgling police force admirably from absolute scratch as previously only parish constables had existed to keep law and order. Some of these parish constables continued to serve, the last being Messrs Fairburn, Akers and Hardy of Northallerton, in 1875.

His task was particularly difficult because of the far-flung and varied nature of his constabulary, from rural villages to the rapidly expanding industrial Teesside.

For example, when PC Clark was posted to South Bank, Middlesbrough, the first two questions he was asked by his new superior, Insp Dowsland, were: "Where do you come from?" and "Can you fight?"

There were numerous other signs of the times. In 1862, Capt Hill started a police library "to encourage the habit of reading." Whistles were introduced in 1866. In 1887, it was decreed that in the "flogging of children" a lighter birch rod should be used for those under ten.

And in 1896, strict instructions were issued on the enforcement of the regulations regarding men walking in front of steam engines.

Capt Hill served as chief constable for a prodigious 42 years, assiduously duty bound, until he retired on September 30, 1898, at the age of 75, having laid the North Riding constabulary on the firmest of foundations.

It was even said that he still went into his office every day to make sure things were running smoothly after his retirement.

When he died in November 1899, his funeral was attended by North Riding notables from far and wide, his coffin was borne, appropriately, by four police superintendents and every blind was drawn in Northallerton and Romanby as a mark of respect respect to one who had become a local legend in his own lifetime.

He was buried in Northallerton cemetery where his gravestone, appropriately upright and sturdy, is still a prominent feature.

His residence virtually throughout his chief constable's career was at Romanby House at the head of Romanby Green, where he and his wife raised their family of a daughter and two sons. One of these, Alan, was to add even more lustre to the Hill name and reputation in 19th century Northallerton.

Alan, like his father, was imbued with the military spirit and after attending school at Richmond joined the 58th Northamptonshire Regiment, was commissioned and went with his regiment to South Africa as part of the British force dispatched in 1881 to engage the Boers.

The British were soon in action storming the Boers' position at Majuba Hill on Sunday morning, February 27, 1881, only to be repulsed with heavy losses.

Aged only 21, Lt Alan Hill was in the thick of the fighting. Riding furiously on horseback, despite being wounded, he plucked a fellow officer from the bloody fray only for him to be killed in his arms. Undeterred, and through withering fire, he picked up another soldier and rode him to safety ignoring his personal wounds.

These exploits earned him a mention in Gen Colley's dispatches and when he was invalided home he was accorded a hero's welcome when he arrived at Northallerton railway station on August 7, 1881. A great crowd greeted him and, led by the strident Northallerton Volunteers band playing patriotic martial airs, he was jubilantly escorted home by his huge following to Romanby House.

The latter was also the venue for a celebratory welcome home dinner on September 15, 1881, when he was presented with an illuminated address and an engraved sword by the senior officers of the North Riding constabulary, led by Supt Walmsley as a mark of their esteem.

Imagine the spontaneous and united pleasure locally then, in those heady days of a Victorian Britain which seemingly had no peers, when it was announced that Queen Victoria was graciously pleased to signify her intention of conferring the Victoria Cross on the gallant Lt Alan Hill.

The Rev Saywell, Northallerton's curate, in his History and Annals of Northallerton (1885) summed up the contemporary feelings of pride and patriotism: "We congratulate Lieut Hill, VC, and trust that he may be long spared to enjoy his well merited honour, and that the spirit of Wellington will urge on the young 'hero' to further fruitful deeds of heroism and glory."

Alan Hill was indeed "spared" to lead a long and active life, retiring from the army as a major and upon marrying Miss Walker of Maunby Hall he incorporated his wife's maiden name, becoming Maj Alan Hill-Walker VC.

He took a leading part in local affairs, especially agriculture, for example, being president of the Northallerton agricultural show in 1927, and in spite of the effects of his Transvaal wounds never lost his love of horsemanship, following the hounds with all the local hunts until well into his 70s.

When he was laid to rest in the quiet Maunby churchyard near his home in the countryside of his native and beloved North Riding in 1944, trumpeters of the Northamptonshire Regiment played the Last Post and Reveille. The stirring chords over the North Riding countryside echoed the sense of duty and dedication of the Hills, Thomas and Alan, father and son, to their native county for almost a century