Director of Prisons of Rhodesia to 1954, prisons in Southern Rhodesia were administered by the Southern Rhodesia Prison Department (SRPD). On 30 November 1954, the Federal Assembly of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland passed the Prisons Department Act (49/1954), which incorporated the SRPD into the Federal Prison Service (FPS), effective 1 December 1954. This arrangement continued until December 1963, when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolved and autonomy was returned to the individual colonies of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland, the latter two of which gained independence in 1964 as Zambia and Malawi, respectively. From 1963, the service continued as the Southern
Northern Rhodesia Police stand off until troops of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment arrived, having been flown from Lusaka and order was fully restored. In 1935 Captain Wardroper moved his office to Lusaka, the new capital. In 1936 he retired as Commissioner after 21 years in the Force and was succeeded by his deputy, Harry Hart, who had joined the NRP as a constable in 1919 after war service in the Royal Artillery. In 1937 Detective Constable Ladell investigating a burglary at Victoria Falls took plaster casts of footprints, a recent development in police practice. Ladell followed a spoor for six miles and arrested