|
 | |  | |
During my second year at Horsham (1950) the annual police sports was held in the town, recollects Harold Taylor, and organised by the local division. In an effort to put on a good show everyone was expected to take part in something.
I was not very sports orientated and knowing I was no use at running, allowed myself to be put down for the two mile walking event. An event that had been won by a local country beat man, who was very proud of his accomplishment. We used a local school in the Causeway at Horsham for training. It was also our venue for our cricket matches.
With reports going back to the station at my progress in the walking, when it came to the day, our local champion scratched. I won the event with considerable ease, and I think with about 1 and a half minutes taken off the previous year's time.
As the result of this I was encouraged to join some athletic club and take part in other events. Before I joined a club though I entered two other police events, but was disqualified from both. I then joined a club and fairly regularly trained with them, ironing out some wrinkles.
In the meantime police work took on its monotonous and weary every day routine patrol, reporting motoring offences, dealing with minor crime; the type of stuff that CID considered unsolvable.
Escort to prisoners, observation of prisoners in hospital (attempted suicides), delivering summonses, serving writs and many other mundane jobs. Not forgetting of course reporting and dealing with traffic accidents and attending court.
I mentioned earlier about gaining extra time. If you did it, just too bad, because there was no system of giving you extra pay or time off in lieu. One has to remember that what one may regard now as civil liberties were only just emerging.
The war had put paid to many anomalies, such as the employer owning the employee. However, for special prescribed work one could get time put on your card and you would then be allowed to take time off in lieu.
One of these things was training for one of the National Police events called the PYM Trophy, which was a first aid event.
Similar events were held by a lot of the big organisations, such as the railways and St. John's Ambulance, specifically designed to prove ones prowess at dealing with accidents and saving life. Joining in with this training was an asset in that respect.
Even attending the horse and motor race meetings in those days was not paid. Only time off in lieu was allowed for the time exceeding a normal day's duty.
This accumulated time came in useful for extending an annual leave or a weekend when it became due. However a careful eye was kept on it to see that you were not getting too much extra, nor hoarding the time for too long.
Harold Taylor West Sussex, 2001
| |  | |  |
To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.
|
|
