Henry Solomon

Who was Henry Solomon?

Chief Constable Henry Solomon was a police officer who became the first Chief Constable of Brighton Borough Police in East Sussex, England.

Solomon was appointed as Chief Constable — the highest rank in the force — on 18 May 1838, which was a notable appointment in that period as he was a Jewish man. He became the superior officer to two superintendents, three inspectors, twenty-four constables and a night constable — a total of thirty-one officers for a population of around 47,000.

While interviewing a prisoner — 23-year-old John Lawrence, for theft of a roll of carpet — on 13 March 1844, Solomon was bludgeoned by Lawrence with a poker, causing a head injury from which he later died. An appeal to which Queen Victoria gave £50 raised a large sum for the welfare of his widow and nine children. Lawrence was found guilty of murder at Lewes Assizes and publicly hanged at Horsham.

Solomon is thought to be the only Chief Constable in the United Kingdom to have been murdered in his own police station. His ghost reputedly haunts the basement of the building, now a town hall.