When an officer left the force an entry was made in the Discharge Register. The entry shows the Division he was serving in, his rank, the dates he joined and left the force. It also shows the grade of Certificate of Conduct he received. Initially the grades of Conduct were:
| 1 – Excellent | 2 – Very Good | 3 – Good | 4 – Open Certificate (no comment to make) |
Certificates were not given to officers who were Dismissed or Required to Resign or had a very short period of service.
Below is the entry for PC Mark Butcher who received a Class 2 (Very Good) Certificate
The grades were later changed and the top marking was Exemplary. An example of a Certificate of Conduct is shown below:
The Discharge Registers (also referred to as Registers of Leavers) cover the period March 1889 to January 1947 and are contained in files MEPO 4/339 to MEPO 4/351. These can be downloaded for free from the National Archives. These files include a rather basic index but the National Archives website also includes links to detailed transcribed indexes in the Your Archives section on Metropolitan Police Records of Service. These Registers are another valuable tool for finding officers whose names do not appear in my database, noting that officers who left the force between June 1887 and March 1889 will not be shown in these Registers.