Alker Tripp

Who was Alker Tripp?

Sir Herbert Alker Tripp CBE, usually known as Alker Tripp or H. Alker Tripp, was a senior British police official who served as an Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police from 1932 to 1947.

Tripp was born in London, the son of George Henry Tripp, a civil servant who later became Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District. Tripp's ambition was to become an artist, but family disapproval led to him joining the civil staff at Scotland Yard as a clerk in the Commissioner's Office on 22 December 1902. He held a number of posts before being appointed chairman of the Police Recruiting Board in 1920. In this post he conceived of the idea of a police college, which was later established by Lord Trenchard. By 1928, Tripp was assistant secretary in the Metropolitan Police Office.

On 15 January 1932, Tripp was appointed Assistant Commissioner "B", in charge of traffic. He was the first member of Scotland Yard's civilian staff to be appointed to this rank. He devoted the next fifteen years to the study of London's traffic problems, and also traffic problems of other cities throughout Europe and North America, becoming a recognised authority on the traffic control. In 1933, he was appointed to the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Board. In 1938 he published Road Traffic and Its Control, which remained the only full-length study of the subject until after his death.