The British Bobby

[John Pruden]

anyone remember the bobby directing traffic outside Vittoria dock birkenhead in the 60s?jp

[alf corbyn]

i well remeber the copper in durham who controlled the lights via cameras. i had parked at a furniture shop to deliver and had blocked the camera as my vehicle was 13ft 6" high.
this irate copper suddenly appeared and said you have ten seconds to move it or your in deep dodo. i had tied up the whole centre of durham.

[Red Lead Ted]

Comming out of the Mona James ST Liverpool, Now the Liverpool Arms, Back in the early 70s drunk as a skunk, Could hardly hold myself up a bobby approached me are you in control of yourself young man he asked ??????????? I looked at him and said Consternoon Afterble as i fell into the road. Black Van with Man in uniform escorted me to cheapside nick, Bridewell. To sleep it off over night. Just another day in the life Terry.

[John Pruden]

was it me or was them strathclyde police big b..tards in govern in the 60s?? i remember 4 to every bus going through govern with dogs?jp

[Red Lead Ted]

It was the dogs that weren,t handled by the police i had a few run in,s with had a few drinks one night in a pub called the Dry Dock {YOCKER} Walked into a crew of jock asian chap.s 8 to 1 Iwas a bit outnumbered. Just another day in the life, Re Terry.

[Jim Brady]

Do you two guys from Seaforth John Pruden and Red Lead Ted remember the copper "Big Sam" at Seaforth police station.I am a Bootle boy but I remember him then when I strayed onto your territory and I remember him when I emigrated to Seaforth.Sam would chase you for miles on that Raleigh bike of his.I was at Split airport this big woman asked me where I was from,I said Seaforth,well she was over the moon,I was a police woman there she said.I asked her if she knew "Big Sam" she was enthralled that she was there the same time as him.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Pruden]

YES Jim SAM always had a rolled up bike cape and he knew everybody and worse your dad!!! in those days we had a lot of sailors in the inty royal and the Carrie and had a lot of respect of all the people in the area he would stop and you felt guilty even if you had done nothing he knew all the scams that was going on and who did what its a pity the police are not like him today you only needed one SAM in the area to keep the peace and any man that beat his wife SAM would have a quiet word on a dark night and the husband would see his wife in a different light?????jp

[Kenneth Kenny]

Hi Terry I'am from Bootle and they had police man from Bootle we called him jigger Mike he would chase you down the entry he was on a bike,about ten older men would be playing cards for money he would catch them,there would be scramble,he caught John Robbo made him rip the playing cards,then he would take the money that was in the kitty,all the kids following him seen him going in the Coranation Pub off Linacre Lane.We lived off Monfa Road.We went the Stella and Palladian Picture House many times.Ken.

[Red Lead Ted]

I also remember i am from seaforth we had family that lived in the Bull ring same thing remember the lads scrambling when tossing coins and dice against the walls card school ? when the local bobby arrived. The Palladium is a gym know the old Stella is now a shopping centre. I used to go to bootle for my summer holiday,s spent many a happy day in Stanley park my old aunt would take the pressure off my old mam bless her she worked for Vernon's pools and it was at least one out the way my aunty May lived in Olivia St off Bedford Rd the dairy was right opposite there house. We as kids thought they were rich because they got there milk delivered every morning on the doorstep, We still used the old cony ony milk And my aunt treated us to a trip to the Commodore picture house once a week. Talking of the Coronation pub, I sailed a few times with a guy called Timmy Gallagher that was the family,s boozer. I found out on the grapevine that Timmy had passed away a few years ago and is buried in Bootle cemetery. I was at a funeral there last Monday have searched for his grave many times but to no avail. If you remember there used to be an office with a registration of all the graves in the cemetery ? Not any more m8 its gone. Comming from Monfa Rd you might remember the family. Regards Ken Terry. Ps Regarding big sam the bobby in Seaforth he was old school if you were out of order he wouldn,t think twice about clipping you around the ear hole he had hand,s like shovles and you knew you had, had a crack. Happy day,s indeed Terry.

[Rodney Mills]

My best friend Paul and his wife entered the U.S. the same day as I did back in 1962. We met a year later and after forty years we are the best of friends. Paul was a policeman in London prior to migrating. Naturally he started out as a bobby and naturally being low man on the totem-pole he drew working the beat over the Christmas holidays. Christmas Eve, he's scheduled to get-off at 9pm, and hurry home to a nice holiday supper with his wife. What follows he swears was true, his wife remembers him telling her that on Christmas Eve when he arrived home.
Paul's story,

It was about 7:45pm; snowing and Paul was 'plodding' a circular beat: checking shop entrances and rattling the knobs, and he being a "Limey" then, whinging about the cold; the snow, and his bloody luck at having to work Christmas Eve. He stepped into a shop doorway to recheck the locks having rattled this mongrel about five times all ready. Huddled in the corner was someone asleep. It was a male, so Paul said something like "Come on mate, you can't sleep...." The mans dead! Stiff as a board. Paul's really upset at this, not so much that the guys dead, but it's on his beat...it means phone it in, wait for the ambulance and about four hours of paper work...good bye supper! The streets are empty, visibility is low, it's between lamp lights and across the street is some other counstables beat. Paul grabs hold of the man's coat collar and drags him across the empty street and parks him in a shop doorway, and returns a bit "sharpish" to his beat and continues on his merry way. It took him about twenty minutes to circle his beat and guess what? The body is back on his side again. Obviously, the beat cop across the street had pulled a rotten trick...and Paul being a cop figured the sxx started it. Well Paul swears that the body was moved twice more ending up on his side. He left him there until minuets before his shift ended; waiting for the other beat-cop to go by, a quick drag across the street once more then he raced back to the station house and checked out, shift finished.

Cheers. Rodney