Detective Ernest Edgar Dalton: Leeds Alien Registration

Detective Ernest Edgar Dalton was one of the main officers in charge of alien registration at Leeds in 1914. His career with the Leeds City Police Force spanned more than twenty-five years. Dalton had joined as a constable in 1901, attaining the rank of Superintendent before retiring in 1927.¹

During his time as a police officer Ernest Dalton had spent seven years as a Court Officer, having previously served in the Chief Clerk’s Office and on street duty. He was promoted to Detective Sergeant in 1907.² He had stood for the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Park Division of Sheffield after his retirement, and had unsuccessfully contested the seat at Hull South-West as a Liberal candidate in the 1945-46 elections.³ Dalton had been also active as a business manager of the Leeds Art Theatre in the late 1920s.

The son of a former Deputy Chief Constable, Ernest Edgar Dalton had served in the Army Medical Corps during the South African War. He was living at Woodbine Cottage, Leeds, at the time of his death in 1947. Dalton had collapsed while waiting for a train to Manchester at Leeds Station. He was 68 years of age. He was survived by a daughter. His son had served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.⁴

1. Yorkshire Post, 25 June 1927, p. 15.
2. Ibid; Yorkshire Evening Post, 16 August 1907, p. 6.
3. Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 November 1947, p. 5.
4. Ibid.

Image: Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 November 1947, p. 5

David Stowe, May 2018