Extracts from a Force Like No Other: The Next Shift

When I was stationed in the Rosemount area of Londonderry, I worked with a number of part-time RUC Reserve members.

One man in particular comes to mind, Constable David Stanley Wray.

He lived on the west bank of the Foyle in the Glen Estate, a Housing Executive estate that was once considered a Protestant enclave in a nationalist area, but the Protestant population had been gradually moving out as a result of intimidation and fear.

Stanley was a family man who worked at the DuPont Maydown plant in the city. I never knew him to be a religious person, or at least he never discussed religion when at work in the police station anyway.

Sometime around 1976, Stanley was ambushed at his home in the Glen Estate, suffering severe gunshot wounds to his chest.

At first it was feared that he would not survive the attack, such were his injuries, but he did.

After the attack the family were forced to leave their home and move to the Waterside area of Londonderry, which would have been considered a much safer area for a police officer to live.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Stanley, having survived a murder attempt, would have distanced himself from the RUC Reserve, or indeed resigned from it completely.

However, Stanley was old school and made of sterner stuff.

He was not that easily intimidated.

It took him about a year to make a full recovery and Stanley appeared back at work as a part-time member at the RUC Station in Rosemount.