Memorial stone to ‘remarkable’ police officer is unveiled by PM
A “REMARKABLE” police constable killed in the line of duty represented “everything we treasure” in the force, said the Prime Minister.
Together with Geraldine Winner of the Police Memorial Trust, Theresa May unveiled a memorial stone in honour of married father-of-two Dave Phillips, 34, inset, who was mown down and killed by a teenage car thief in October 2015.
Pc Phillips’s widow Jen and young daughters Abigail and Sophie attended the service at Hamilton Square in Birkenhead, Merseyside, along with the officer’s other family members, friends and colleagues.
It was the 42nd memorial to a fallen police hero and the first on Merseyside by the trust founded by the late movie director Michael Winner.
Theresa May told those gathered: “Pc Phillips epitomised the very best of everything we treasure in our policemen and women. Compassion, professionalism, that overwhelming ethos of service and the extraordinary selflessness that meant day in and day out he saw it as his duty to risk his life for the safety of his community. “It was that duty and those remarkable qualities that led Pc Phillips to take on a criminal driving a stolen vehicle that fateful night. It was that duty and those remarkable qualities that led him to make the ultimate sacrifice.”
She added: “I have dreaded the moments when the news comes through to me that one of our policemen and women have been killed in the line of duty but that pales into insignificance when compared to the devastating loss suffered by his family.”
Mrs May said the memorial provided a place for people to remember a “local boy who became a national hero”.