West Midlands officers attend poignant COPS service
31 July 2023
Hundreds of police officers have joined the families of fallen officers for the annual Care of Police Survivors (COPS) Service of Remembrance.
The poignant ceremony came on the 20th anniversary of the charity and, as usual, marked the end of the Police Unity Tour (PUT) cycle ride.
The West Midlands PUT chapter was jointly led by branch chair Rich Cooke and Chief Superintendent Andy Beard.
Rich rode in memory of PC Philip Sanderson who was just 21 when he was killed in a road accident as he responded to a crime in 1978.
The team raised more than £10,000 for COPS and people still have time to make a donation via its JustGiving page.
A wreath laid by the West Midlands Police PUT chapter
West Midlands Police brass band performed ahead of the ceremony as the riders from forces across the country arrived at the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas in Staffordshire.
The memorial service heard from a number of speakers whose lives had been impacted by the death of a family member in the police service.
COPS co-founder and vice-president Christine Fulton, whose husband PC Lewis Fulton was stabbed to death in Glasgow in 1994, opened the service and spoke of the importance of peer support for survivors.
Looking back on the group’s first meetings and how survivors responded, Christine said: “For the first time they could talk about their officers without fear of making the listener feel uncomfortable or becoming upset if they became upset.
“We didn’t mind. If they cried we cried with them, if they laughed we laughed with them. Sometimes we laughed and cried at the same time.
“And that peer support is what is at the very heart of this charity.”
Hundreds attended the COPS service of remembrance
The memorial service also heard from Caroline Cox, whose older brother Inspector Mark Estall of Essex Police died in January 2017, and Katy McMurray, whose dad PC Alan McMurray of Lothian and Borders died on 4 February 2006 when she was only two.
COPS national president Gill Marshall gave an address before wreaths were laid by representatives of the Office of the Lieutenancy, the High Sheriff’s Office, the Home Office, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Fire & Rescue Services, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Blue Light, the Police Unity Tour, the National Memorial Arboretum and COPS.
The service included a roll of honour including the names of officers who have died in the last 12 months.
They were:
PC Daniel Golding of the Metropolitan Police who died on 18 August 2022;
PCSO Daniel Gower of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary who died on 23 November 2022;
PS Steven Creal of Sussex Police who died on 21 December 2022;
PC Richard Kemp of Lancashire Constabulary who died on 27 December 2022;
PC Bruce Lister of Hertfordshire Police who died on 30 January 2023;
PC Neil Pattinson of Northumbria Police who died on 27 February 2023;
PC Andy Boardman of West Mercia Police who died on 11 April 2023, and
Inspector Gareth Earp of Dyfed Powys Police who died on 29 June 2023.
Sir Peter Fahy, chair of the COPS trustees gave a closing speech after a flypast and bow by a National Police Air Service helicopter.
Officers, police survivors, family members and guests then laid red roses and wreaths at the The Beat, the arboretum’s tree lined avenue honouring fallen officers.
