Death of a retired Police Officer : Chief Inspector 1310 John Raymond Albert (Ray) Richardson

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of a retired Police Officer : Chief Inspector 1310 John Raymond Albert (Ray) Richardson, who died on the 9^th November 2017. He was aged 76 years.
He leaves his widow Sheila Richardson and daughter Rachel Slater and son Stephen Richardson.
Ray retired from Durham Constabulary on the 26^th August 1992.
The funeral service will be taking place on Tuesday 28^th November at 11am at Kettering Crematorium, Edgar Newman Chapel, Rothwell Road, Kettering, NN16 8XE.
This will then be followed by a reception at The Falcon Hotel, Market Place, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9PY.
The funeral service is not private.
Donations have been requested in lieu of flowers to either the Blue Lamp Foundation or the Alzheimer’s Society and the donations can be sent to E M Dorman Funeral Directors.
Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.

Durham Peeler : Winter 2017

Durham Peeler editor Alan Watson has been keeping himself busy over the last few months to produce the Winter 2017 edition of the Durham Peeler.
To view this latest edition of the magazine online, please click on the image.
If you would like to view other editions of the Durham Peeler please Click Here
Hard copies of the magazine will be distributed to members soon

Death of a retired Police Officer : PC 1298 Joseph Peter Harrison

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of a retired Police Officer : PC 1298 Joseph Peter Harrison who died on the 3^rd November 2017 aged 83.
He leaves his wife Marie Harrison, 5 children, 5 grand-children and 2 great grand-children.
Joseph served with the Merchant Navy as 3^rd Officer from 14^th July 1952 - 28^th August 1960. He then joined Durham Constabulary on 4th April 1961 and from HQ training was first posted to Jarrow where he served for 4 years. He then moved to Stanley before joining motorcycle patrols working first at Whickham then HQ. From 1967 to 1978 he served in various roles within motor patrols including working both North and South of the county. In August 1978 he transferred to Consett where he spent 4 years on the town patrols before moving into enquiry/communications. PC Harrison retired on pension on the 3^rd April 1991.
The funeral service is taking place on the 16^th November 2017 at 11.00am at All Saints Church, Lanchester.
The funeral service is not private and any friends/colleagues are welcome to attend, there will also be a gathering shortly afterwards at the Lanchester Cricket Club.
Donations have been requested in lieu of flowers to Macmillan Cancer Care.
Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.

A time to reflect as we approach Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day.

It was first observed in 1919, however until 1945 it was called Armistice Day. Traditionally there is two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that was the time (in Britain) when the armistice became effective in 1918.
Today, in the UK Remembrance Sunday is also observed on the Sunday nearest to November 11th. So, in the United Kingdom, two minutes' silence is observed on November 11 itself, and on the second Sunday of November. Remembrance Sunday, ceremonies are held at War Memorials, all over the UK and over the years it has become a day to commemorate not just the sacrifice of servicemen and women but the suffering of civilians in times of war.

Remembrance Sunday is commemorated by church services around the UK and a parade of ex-service personnel in London’s Whitehall. Wreaths of poppies are placed on war memorials from the Cenotaph, a war memorial in Whitehall, to the tiniest war memorials in villages all over Britain. Small wooden crosses are placed in Gardens of Remembrance as private acts of remembering individual losses and suffering and people pin poppies to their coat or jacket.

History states that it was the poem 'In Flanders Fields' written in 1915 by Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian Medical Officer, that captured the imagination of the British people in the dark days of trench warfare on the Western Front when so many young soldiers failed to return. Six months before the Armistice, McCrae was brought on a stretcher to a big hospital on the French coast and saw the cliffs of Dover from his room. He died that night and was buried in a cemetery above Wimereux. Before he died, he said to the doctor: "Tell them this . . . If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep." An American woman, Miss Moina Michael, wrote a moving poem in reply and bought 25 red poppies, wearing one herself as a way to keep faith with the war dead; a French woman, Madame Guerin, came up with the practical idea of making and selling artificial poppies to help ex-service men and their dependents in need.

Britain's first Poppy Day was held in 1921 and the money raised helped children in war-devastated areas. The Royal British Legion opened its own poppy factory in London in 1922 to give practical help in time of need to all who have served in the armed forces and their widows and dependents. The paper poppies that are worn today are made by ex-service personnel and are sold by representatives of the Royal British Legion, an organisation of ex-servicemen and women. Today, they make more than 35 million poppies and 65,000 wreaths for the annual poppy appeal. Poppies grew in great abundance in the shell-torn fields of Flanders during the War. Because of its abundance it became the symbol of remembrance of two world wars.