Memorial to first officer killed on duty

POLICE: A memorial to an officer who was stabbed through the heart after stopping to help a teenage hitchhiker is set to be erected more than four decades after his death.

The tribute would honour Detective Constable Norman Garnham, the first North Yorkshire Police officer killed in the line of duty.

A MEMORIAL to a police officer who was stabbed through the heart after stopping to help a teenage hitchhiker looks set to be erected more than four decades after his death.

Plans have been submitted for the tribute to be placed in Richmond Market Square to honour Detective Constable Norman Garnham, inset, the first North Yorkshire Police officer to be killed in the line of duty.

He died in March 1977, just two weeks after becoming a detective, shortly after completing his shift as he drove home to Skeeby, to the north-east of the town.

Hitchhiker Colin Simpson, 18, had run away from his home in Richmond after attacking his sisters, and Det Con Garnham pulled over to give him a lift.

When Simpson recognised Det Con Garnham, who was originally from North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, he ran off, before stabbing the 25-year-old police officer as he tried to detain him.

Richmond county and district councillor Stuart Parsons said he was delighted the scheme had been drawn up.

The tribute will feature a Balmoral stone memorial with gold lettering. Coun Parsons said: “It is time that this was done – he has had no memorial in all these years. “It was almost as if he had completely faded from people’s memory. “The memorial will remind people that tragedy can strike in a beautiful and tranquil place such as Richmond. “We have so much talk about knife crime now it seems almost normal, but in the 1970s this sort of crime would have virtually have been unheard of. “He was a very promising young man, killed when he was driving to help somebody.

“He was probably still very idealistic and didn’t understand that human nature can be quite bizarre and that he should always do the right thing, helping everybody.”

To remember Det Con Garnham’s sacrifice, North Yorkshire Police has been working with the Police Memorial Trust, a national charity set up by film producer Michael Winner.

The trust was established in the wake of the murder of police officer Yvonne Fletcher, who was fatally wounded by a shot fired from the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984.

The trust has other memorials in North Yorkshire, including one in Tadcaster in the memory of Special Constable Glenn Goodman, who was killed by an IRA gunman in 1992.

Following lengthy discussions over suitable sites, the force has submitted an application for listed building consent to Richmondshire District Council.

The proposal would see a stone memorial plaque erected in a courtyard beside the deconsecrated 14th-century church which is used by the Green Howards Museum.

The plans state that the courtyard area could be used for quiet reflection, and to “remember the service and sacrifice of a fallen officer”.

The trust has agreed to fund the memorial.

Det Con Garnham had joined the North Yorkshire force in 1975 and had lived in lodgings in Richmond Road, Skeeby.

After his death, Skeeby’s postmistress Alice Little paid tribute to the fallen officer.

She said: “He was a kind and friendly young man, just like the old village bobby.

“He was well-known and liked by everybody.”