Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, usually just known as the Receiver (and sometimes referred to early in the post's existence as the Receiver-General), was, until 2000, the chief financial officer of the Metropolitan Police in London, and the treasurer of the Metropolitan Police Fund. He was never a police officer. The title came from the fact that his original role was to 'receive' money raised from the rates of the Metropolitan Police District's parishes.
History
The office's precursor was that of "Receiver of the Eight Police-offices". That post was set up in 1792 to run the finances of the seven police stations used by the Bow Street Runners and a little later also those of the Thames River Police's first station at Wapping. The last holder of that role was Robert Peel's private secretary Thomas Venables, appointed by royal warrant on 7 January 1822. Venables continued to hold that role after the Met's establishment in 1829 and on his death in 1837 it was merged into the Met Receiver role.
The Met Receiver was also appointed by the Crown. All the property of the Metropolitan Police was technically owned by the holder of the post of Receiver, who had the legal status of a corporation sole. All contracts were made in his name and all purchases, sales and contracts required his approval.
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This entry incorporates text from “Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.