His first duty was to patrol Phoenix Park, Dublin, nightly, shortly after the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the chief secretary of Ireland, and his under-secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, by Irish republican nationalists.

Rafter was recommended to the Birmingham watch committee as "skilled in the preservation or restoration of peace in troubled districts where party feeling runs high".

Birmingham was the Liberal Unionist stronghold of Joseph Chamberlain, the colonial secretary associated with the war policy, and Rafter anticipated trouble.

A large crowd, armed with stones, brick-ends, and other missiles, stormed the town hall and smashed windows and street lamps in Victoria Square; Rafter personally escorted Lloyd George from the platform to a secure room underneath, from which he enabled the future prime minister to get away safely, disguised, according to some reports, as a police officer.

The city's boundaries were extended in 1911 to incorporate the outlying suburbs of Aston Manor, Erdington, Handsworth, Acocks Green, Yardley, King's Norton, and Northfield.

The creation of Greater Birmingham, as it was known, trebled the city's acreage to 43,000 acres and increased its population from 523,000 to 840,000, creating new challenges for policing such a large urban area.

In addition to its patrol duties the force's transport department in Duke Street was also responsible for the city's ambulances, prison vans, and mortuary.

The curriculum included criminal law and procedure, police duties, arithmetic, English composition, dictation, gymnastics, swimming, drill, first aid, and practical tips for dealing with the public.

With Rafter's encouragement, the rugby-playing assistant chief constable who was his heir apparent from 1918, Cecil Moriarty, wrote and revised a set of model instructions for police, which became a national standard, albeit an unofficial one.

A women's police department was formed in June 1917 to deal with cases of indecent exposure, sexual assault, carnal knowledge, attempted suicide, obscene language, and shoplifting.

He started an annual police sports' day, which was open to public spectators, and initiated inter-divisional competitions to encourage healthy rivalry among his men.

Rafter was a lover of music, and was keenly interested in the city police band (which was conducted for a time by Sir Adrian Boult) and the Municipal Officers' Guild Choir.

He was also a keen horticulturalist and spent much of his later leisure time cultivating hothouse plants and flowers at his Birmingham home, Elmley Lodge, Old Church Road, Harborne.

His memorial service at St Martin's parish church in Birmingham's Bull Ring attracted a large congregation of prominent citizens and police officers.

Charles was a pilot officer with 214 Squadron, flying Wellington bombers, and was killed after crashing into a hangar on take-of at RAF Stradishall on 11 October 1940.