Joseph Grantham

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Police Constable Joseph Grantham (died 1830) was the first police officer to be killed whilst on duty in the United Kingdom.

Joseph Grantham was a police officer in the Metropolitan Police Service which had been formally established in 1829. While on duty on 28 June 1830, he intervened in a fight between two drunks in Somers Town, London, during the altercation Grantham was beaten to death. At his inquest, the jury returned a verdict of "justifiable homicide", possibly due to dislike of the new police force. Grantham was held to have contributed to his own death by "over-exertion in the discharge of his duty".[http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-bobby/biography/the-early-bobbies-in-progress "The First Bobbies"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927004649/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-bobby/biography/the-early-bobbies-in-progress |date=27 September 2007 }}[http://www.met.police.uk/history/timeline1829-1849.htm Early timeline of the Metropolitan Police] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426000459/http://www.met.police.uk/history/timeline1829-1849.htm |date=26 April 2009 }}