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Robert Mark 1943.
Robert Mark was born on 13th March
1917 in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, a suburb
of Manchester. He left school in 1935 to
become a carpet salesman but, finding
this boring, he joined Manchester Police
in 1937 to the horror of his father, who
told him that being a policeman was
‘only one step above going to prison’.
After early war service with the Special Branch, Mark joined the army in 1942 and was commissioned from Sandhurst into the RAC in October 1943.
Transferring to the Manchester Regiment, he was employed liaising with Special Forces and took part in the Normandy landings. After demobilisation as a major in 1947, Mark returned to Manchester Police, where he was soon promoted to detective-sergeant. His ability marked him out for further rapid promotion and, by the mid-1950s, he was a chief superintendent, yet younger than any of the inspectors in the Manchester force. During this time, he studied at the Police College, Bramshill, the only course he ever attended, despite an increasing emphasis on training within the police. He subsequently said: ‘I must be the classic example of the man who beat the system’,
In 1957, Mark was appointed chief constable of Leicestershire Police and, in 1967, transferred to the Metropolitan Police as assistant chief constable (personnel and training), where he received a frosty welcome as an outsider. At this time, the Met was mired in a series of corruption scandals, and Mark set about cleaning up the criminal investigation department (CID) using the mantra: ‘A good police force is one that catches more crooks than it employs’. With a small core of loyal uniformed officers supporting him, Mark formed A10, a special unit to investigate corruption. Several senior officers were investigated and jailed, including the head of the Flying Squad and, ironically, the head of the previous anti-corruption unit. Some 500 officers were dismissed or forced to resign, and CID was increasingly placed under uniformed command. With a decline in ‘tip-offs’ from corrupt officers, the number of bank robberies in London fell dramatically.
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