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Operation Gramophone was the codename for the plan devised by the Berkshire Constabulary in case the country was invaded during World War One. It would still be unheard of today had it not been for the discovery of secret documents hidden in a suitcase at Wokingham Police Station in the 1980鈥檚 and handed in to Berkshire Record Office.

The suitcase belonged to Superintendent Charles Goddard of the Wokingham Police and its contents reveal detailed plans to enrol men in the town as special constables to patrol and safeguard the area and look out for 鈥渁lien enemies鈥� 鈥� Germans, Austrians and Hungarians.

In the event of an invasion, they anticipated the influx of a large number of fugitives, vehicles and livestock from neighbouring counties and had made plans for collecting stations and rest camps to provide the refugees with food and forage.

The special constables were to be informed of the invasion by members of the Boys Brigade delivering an envelope with the word 鈥淕ramophone鈥� inside. They would then do their duty patrolling the streets, tending to the sick or building barricades to be set up at strategic points around the town, including the main roads and railway crossings.

The colour coded envelopes in the collection, are addressed to each special constable individually, handwritten with a note of their duty inside and signed by the Sub Divisional Officer for Wokingham, F.N.A. Garry.

The Berkshire Constabulary in 1914 was divided into eight police divisions 鈥� Abingdon, Faringdon, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading, Wantage, Windsor and Wokingham with 273 Regular Police across the force and a back up Police Reserve of fifty men.

Location: Wokingham Police Station, Milton Road, Wokingham RG40 1DE
Image: Berkshire and the War, courtesy of Reading Library
Extracts from 鈥淥peration Gramophone鈥� from the Forest Petty Sessions Archive, courtesy of Berkshire Record Office
Extracts read by Howard Hughes

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