We had a wonderful turnout at yesterday’s monthly meeting; members keen to get the inside knowledge from one of our retired senior police officers. They were not disappointed. Mervyn Edwards has a long history of working within the police force in various posts and departments within the Thames Valley area.
He has collected, and retained, many memories from those times and was happy to share them with us. These included preparing for a visit from Idi Amin, fortunately abandoned but not without putting a number of officers through the intense disciple of preparatory training. But on the other side of life, we had graphic details of him being bitten on the bum by a police dog, thankfully he didn’t bring the offending dog with him yesterday.
Various tales of both humorous and fearful situations just enhanced the faith we have in our police force and the respect shown was extensive. Mervyn completed the session by answering a number of questions. He has written a book based on his experiences, though has said he has another in the pipeline all about the Newbury by-pass debacle, and also gives a talk based on those times. Given the reception he received yesterday I’m sure you will all agree with me that we would love to hear more from his archives.
Babs Cooper