Otho was born at Cosham in Hampshire around 1819, the son of George STEED, a baker, and Martha née SILVER. He had a sister Ellen who was born several years later and they were baptised together at Wymering in 1825. Why did George and Mary wait so long to baptise Otho? Perhaps it was because they didn't like the vicar or had just stopped going to church.

Otho followed his older brother James into the London Metropolitan Police, joining D Division as a Constable on 8 June 1839. He was 5ft 9in tall and had blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. He was living in Cumberland Place when he married Mary Ann TOMLIN in February 1840. On their marriage certificate he was described as a seaman, which was either an error or possibly a reference to his earlier life which might explain the man and woman in blue tattooed on his right arm. They lived in Marylebone and their first child, Henry George, was born in August 1841. Otho was promoted to Sergeant on 21 March 1843. He and Mary definitely had three more children while he was a serving police officer: Mary Ann born in November 1843, Frederick William in October 1845 and Emily in July 1848. There is also a possibility that they had two more around 1850: Charles John and Sarah Agnes. I have so far been unable to trace birth registrations for either, although Otho Henry is clearly stated as their father on their respective marriage certificates in the 1870s.

At this time water supplies were unclean, sanitation and hygiene were poor and medicine offered very few effective treatments. People believed that illness was spread via the air through the unhealthy and unpleasant smell from open sewers - called a miasma. Children who caught measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria or whooping cough were very likely to die. In London in 1848-49 there was a cholera outbreak which killed 50,000 people and in 1853-54 there was another outbreak. Perhaps it's not surprising that only Mary survived childhood. Frederick died aged 1 in 1846; Henry died aged 9 and Emily aged 3 in 1851.

Otho's family life is rather uncertain around 1851. He was living in Upper York Street, Marylebone with children Henry G and Mary A but no sign of wife Mary Ann nor any record of Charles George nor Sarah Agnes. Possibly wife Mary Ann had died in childbirth or of illness or perhaps the marriage had broken up.

On 12 June 1852 Otho was promoted to Inspector and transferred to M Division.

Otho gave evidence at Old Bailey on numerous occasions including the following:

• April 1841. Nineteen years old Henry SUTTON was charged with stealing food to a total value of about 5s. He was found guilty and transported for seven years. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• June 1841. Michael MURPHEY, aged 35, and John BUTLER, aged 30, were charged with stealing oats, beans and chaff from MURPHEY's employer. MURPHEY pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. BUTLER pleaded not guilty, was tried and proved guilty and sentenced to three months imprisonment. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• October 1841. 61 year old Sarah CLARK was charged with stealing bread, butter, cheese, a duster and a dairycloth worth a total of 2s 4d from her master. She was found guilty but, because of her previous good character, mercy was recommended and she was sentenced to only two months in prison. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• August 1842. William DEAN, 27 years old, was charged with stealing 15s from a lodger at a public house. He was found guilty and having previous convictions was transported for seven years. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• December 1843. John GRIFFIN and Joseph WALKER, both aged 29, were charged with stealing 50 feet of lead pipe and a wheelbarrow worth a total of about £2 10s. They were both found guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• February 1848. John MARTIN and John CONNELL were charged with breaking and entering the home of James PAINE and stealing miscellaneous jewelery, money, clothes and other articles to a total value of about £24. 36 year old CONNELL pleaded guilty and was sent down for two years. MARTIN was discharged due to lack of evidence that he was the second man involved in the break-in. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)
• November 1853. Seventeen year old John PAUL was charged with breaking into the house of John UNDERWOOD and stealing clothing and a concertina. He was found guilty and, with another charge against him, wassentenced to four years penal servitude, i.e. imprisonment most likely with hard labour. (Proceedings of the Old Bailey)

On 12 May 1855, The Kentish Mercury carried a report of an assault on Otho:

TUESDAY - ASSAULT. - Edward Doyle, a paper-maker, and well-known ruffian of Rotherhithe, was charged with being drunk and assaulting Inspector Steed of the M division, in the execution of his duty; Frederick Charles Sanby, of no occupation, and Anna House, married woman, both residing in the same locality, with a similar offence, and assaulting Police-constable 89 M. It appeared from the evidence of the inspector, whose face was much cut and head bruised, that he passed the prisoners at a quarter past twelve o'clock, on the Lower-road, Deptford, very drunk and riotous. He advised them to desist and go home quietly. They apparently obeyed, and he went on. On returning the same way he was suddenly assailed by the same party, one of them saying "here's the ---- patrol," receiving at the same time from some material or other, probably the clogs belonging to the female prisoner, several severe blows on the face and head. He grappled with them, and was compelled to use his stick in defence, which was broken in two, as produced. Police-constable 317 M in the mean time came up, having heaard the rattle sprung by police-constable 89 M, who came in for his full share of blows from the prisoners, all of whom were, with not a little difficulty, securely lodged in the station-house. This having been corroborated by the police constables named, and the prisoners being unable to rebut it, Doyle, who seven years ago was tried and convicted of felony, and Sanby were committed to prison for fourteen days; the female prisoner was ordered to pay a fine of 20s., or fourteen day's imprisonment. The prisoner Sanby has also been twice convicted at the court for acts of violence and suspicious cases of robbery; and there can be no doubt but all the prisoners get their living by acts of plunder.

Otho injured his knee whilst on duty sufficiently seriously for him to be discharged on account of ill health on 22 November 1856. He received a police pension of £59 per year, which is about £5,000 per year in today's money.

Otho moved south of the river to Rotherhithe where he set up as a linen draper, then tobacconist and a few years later as a newsagent. In 1857 Otho Henry Jr was born; his mother was Mary Ann EVANS so presumably Otho had married for a second time to another Mary Ann. Two more children were born both of whom survived childhood: Annette Maria came along in 1859 and Rosa Maria (later known simply as Rose) in 1861.

On Aug 13 1860 Agnes Sarah STEED was admitted to St Mary's Church of England School Rotherhithe, aged 8, parents Henry and Mary, father late Inspector Police, living at 1 Commercial Terrraces, Commercial Street.

I have so far been unable to trace the family in the 1861 and 1871 censuses so this part of his life remains a puzzle. At some stage the family moved west because son Frederick William was born at Bristol in 1864 but died later that year. Their fifth and final child Edith Ellen, sometimes known as Ellen, was born on Boxing Day 1866 at Bristol and baptised in January the following year. At that time the family were living at 9 Beaufort Buildings. The 1871 census presents a puzzle because 10 Beaufort Buildings is occupied by a family called MORRIS, whose forenames and birth places exactly match those of Otho Henry and his family. Daughter Sarah married Peter GAGE at Bristol in 1873 and soon after the family must have moved to Wales.

In 1879 Otho had an office in Bridge Street Newport as an agent for The Equitable Benefit Building Society which was based at Taunton and had £12,000 available to be advanced on house or landed properties. He earned a good commission by introducing borrowers who would be charged 5% pa interest repayable by small instalments. By 1881 they had moved to St Woollos in Monmouthshire where daughter Rose met and married the lodger Pierre ROCHARD.

After his second wife's death in 1883 Otho went to live with Otho Henry junior and his family at Church Vale, West Bromwich, Staffordshire. He died there in 1898.