Bobby on the Beat by Pamela Rhodes

Author:Pamela Rhodes [Rhodes, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781405909471
Google: cyRDCdbfGfwC
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2013-04-25T07:00:00+00:00

7

1952 dawned unceremoniously. We may have been one of the richest countries in the world, but we still clung on to what we saw as the best of wartime values. Those six long years still hung over the nation like an immoveable mist, and most people weren’t in a hurry to move on. Clement Attlee’s compulsory National Service also meant another generation of young men were being steeped in the rigours of military training and sometimes even front line battle.

‘Have you heard this series on the BBC?’ called out Janet one early January morning. She was washing up at the sink, and I was at the table eating some toast and jam. ‘Been on for a while now. All about farming. Can’t see why anyone’d want to listen to that on the wireless, when we get that every day here in real life. Why, you only have to go to the market to hear farmers complaining about this and that.’

Her words faded into a blur as I opened a letter I had just received from Jim. He had been stationed in Germany, but his latest news was that they might be redeployed soon. I hoped he wouldn’t have to fight in real life. My memories of the war as a child were of wives and mothers mourning the loss of husbands and sons, and then there was my own experience when the battleship Repulse sank, and its crew with it, and all we schoolgirls were shocked to the core.

I walked to work with a heavy heart. Inspector Armstrong called me in to his office. He was sending me to Northallerton HQ for a week, to see what they did there.

‘We like all our new recruits to see life at HQ. It’s where it all happens. You’ll be staying up with Sergeant Freeman and her husband.’

A few days later, I had packed my bag and was leaving the house to catch the train when I saw a new PC, Peter Palmer, across the road. He had joined us after Christmas and was still wet behind the ears.

‘Hello, Peter. How’s it going? Are you settling in OK?’

‘I’m just making a “point”,’ he said, proud to be using the official police jargon.

He always looked a bit awkward in his uniform, which seemed somehow too big in every direction, even though he was very tall. His front teeth stuck out and he had a slight stammer when he got nervous. Now that Peter had arrived, it meant I wasn’t the newest PC at Richmond station.

‘So if the Super drives past,’ he said, ‘do we salute or not?’

‘Yes. Salute and make sure he sees you so he can mark in your pocketbook that you were there. But only salute when you first see him.’

‘Right, I see. And what about the Inspector?’

‘If you’re out and about salute the Spec. But not in the station. But you do call him sir.’

Peter started asking another question, but before he finished there was a huge screeching sound on the road behind us and a terrible scream.

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