The Police Inspector: William Robert Windeatt

John WINDEATT=(2)Mary LAIGHT
              |_____________________________________________several siblings
              |                                |
        William Robert=Alice LINLEY     Thomas Alfred=Sarah BOLT
              |                                |
                                     
              |                                |
        six children                     seven children

The brothers, William and Thomas WINDEATT (probably called Bill and Tom), were born in Exeter two years apart and, after a variety of teenage jobs, they both became policemen.  William joined the service in Lancashire and became an Inspector while his brother remained in Exeter as a Police Constable.  Select the arrowed link above to read about William and Thomas's parents and siblings (and so on back as far as 1742!).  You can also select Thomas's photo to read more about him.

William Robert WINDEATT (1873-1918)

William - presumably taken in 1817 on his promotion to Inspector.

William's father had moved from Devon to the Manchester area in the 1860s and, in 1870, married their mother, Mary LAIGHT,  before returning to Devon.  William Robert himself moved to Lancashire in the early 1890s, joined the police in January 1894 and reached the rank of Inspector 1917.  Sadly, he died shortly after in the great 1918 Flue Epidemic.  He was only 46. William married Alice LINLEY in 1900 and had six children, five of whom survived him.  Transcriptions of his birth and marriage certificates are displayed below but the Office of National Statistics does not allow the publication of BMD certificate transcriptions less than one hundred years old so no later certificates are displayed this family. His photos, police record and family details have kindly been supplied by a descendant. Link to my page about John WINDEATT, William's father, and some background about life in Devon and Manchester. Link to The Greater Manchester Police Museum page with a link to a short article on the history of the Greater Manchester police.  Another article about the museum. Link to contemporary Manchester Guardian article about the 1918 Flu Epidemic Link to Wikipedia article on the Great 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic.

1873 - Birth in the District of St. Sidwell in the County of Exeter

1900 Marriage solemnized at St. James' Church in the parish of Hope in the County of Lancaster

All signed. Francis John WINDEATT, was William's older step-brother who had married Ellen Mary SPEAK three years earlier in Salford.

• Link to information about Francis John WINDEATT.

Census Transcriptions

1881 (taken 3 April)

Living at Paragon Place, Exeter Holy Trinity, Devon. with their parents and older brothers and sisters. 

1891 (taken 5 April)

Living at no 4 Alpha Terrace, Heavitree, Exeter.  The boys father, John, had died the previous year but his widow and family were still living in the same house at the time of the 1891 census.  Here they are:

Their older sister, Margaret, and older brother, Francis John, had by this time moved up to Salford where they settled, married and had families.  William was to follow them some time in the next ten years.

1901 (taken 31 March)

William has married, started a family, and moved up to Lancashire.  Here they are living in three rooms at 2 Greaves Street, Mossley.