Police Memorial Trust
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
s killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as a permanent reminder to the public of the sacrifice they made.
Inspiration
The Police Memorial Trust was the brainchild of film producer Michael WinnerMichael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
. Inspired by the fatal shooting on 17 April 1984 of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, Winner wrote a letter to the editor
Letter to the editor
A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication...
of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper suggesting a memorial be erected in Fletcher's honour. After receiving donations from members of the public, Winner established the trust on 3 May 1984.
Memorials
The first Police Memorial Trust memorial was erected for Fletcher and was unveiled at St. James's SquareSt. James's Square
St. James's Square is the only square in the exclusive St James's district of the City of Westminster. It has predominantly Georgian and neo-Georgian architecture and a private garden in the centre...
in London by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
on 1 February 1985.
The trust's third memorial, and the first to be erected outside London, was sited at the seafront at Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea is a small seaside town in the Tendring District of Essex, England. It is part of the Parish of Frinton and Walton.-History:...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, where PC Brian Bishop was fatally shot by an armed robber on 22 August 1984. Bishop's memorial was unveiled by the then home secretary Douglas Hurd
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
, on 19 February 1986.
The most recent memorial was unveiled by the then prime minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
in Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
on 3 October 2008 to mark the site of the fatal stabbing of PC Jon Henry.
A total of thirty-eight memorials in honour of forty-three police officers killed on duty have been erected throughout the United Kingdom. They include the three officers who died in the Shepherd's Bush Murders; PC Keith Blakelock; PC Sharon Beshenivsky; and PC Ged Walker.
National Police Memorial
The National Police MemorialNational Police Memorial
The National Police Memorial is a memorial in central London, commemorating about 4000 police officers killed in the course of their duties in the United Kingdom. It was designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank and Per Arnoldi and unveiled in 2005...
, sited in St. James's Park
St. James's Park
St. James's Park is a 23 hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London - the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St. James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less.- Geographical location :St. James's...
at the junction of Horse Guards Road and The Mall, was unveiled on 26 April 2005 by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the Police Memorial Trust.