Page 17 - Federation Magazine: April/May 2018

Remembering fallen

officers

new roll of honour which was partly
funded by West Midlands Police
AFederation has been unveiled.
The names of 112 officers and police
staff are now on the wall of police
headquarters in a dedicated area of
remembrance.
Relatives of those killed as a result of
their public service joined senior officers at a Pictured: Mary Baldwin, Keith Dobson and Michael Chapman.
service of dedication, led by Force Chaplain
Major Vic Kennedy of the Salvation Army. to uncover the names of those who made At 68, retired PC Keith Malcolm Dobson
The new wood and glass board replaces the ultimate sacrifice. All are now is the oldest to be remembered. The former
an incomplete list of fallen officers which remembered on this beautiful piece of firearms officer died as a result of
hung in Lloyd House, Birmingham prior to locally produced work.” mesothelioma linked to his exposure to
its refurbishment in 2014. The first officer on the roll of honour is asbestos while training.
The board was part funded by charitable Watchman Robert Twyford (54) of The first woman - of only three - to
donations from the West Midlands Police Birmingham Night Watch. He died on 22 feature is Mary Jean Baldwin of Birmingham
Federation and the Benevolent Fund. November 1814 as a result of injuries and City Police’s women’s police service. Mary
“For the first time we now have the the lasting effects of a gunshot wound to died at the age of 34 on 26 June 1959 as a
details of all officers and staff from the the chest sustained in 1806. result of a blood clot caused by an on-duty
forces which amalgamated to form what we The youngest to appear on the roll is fall.
now know as West Midlands Police,” said 16-year-old Thomas Roland Lowry, a The most recent addition to the roll of
Chief Constable Dave Thompson. messenger with Coventry City Police. He was honour is 48-year-old PC Michael Chapman
“Volunteer researchers from our killed on 14 November 1940 when a bomb who died on 14 April 2014 at Stechford
museum have scoured thousands of records landed on the air raid shelter where he was Police Station after a heart attack.
spanning 204 years of local policing history taking refuge.

www.westmidspolfed.com federation April/May 2018 17