Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Off-topic discussions, musings and chat
Post Reply
volvojack
Posts: 1471
Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by volvojack »

Hello JMA.
When i wrote that earlier i did say "Bobby" in fact believe he was working upstairs in the Dewsbury Rd. Station and in later years by a coincidence he started to go in Cross Flatts W. M. C. I am certain that his second name began with the letter D and he certainly had a grey mop. Maybe his name will come back to me ( Some chance) Cheers.

jma
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by jma »

volvojack wrote:Hello JMA.
When i wrote that earlier i did say "Bobby" in fact believe he was working upstairs in the Dewsbury Rd. Station and in later years by a coincidence he started to go in Cross Flatts W. M. C. I am certain that his second name began with the letter D and he certainly had a grey mop. Maybe his name will come back to me ( Some chance) Cheers.
320 Dennis Dear (both names beginning with "D") was the admin sergeant when I joined and he had a full head of silvery grey hair. I don't know anything else about him; I'd have had little reason to speak to him in those days and unlike so many of the characters, I don't remember any stories about his past either. It's certainly true to say that as admin sergeant he'd have had no reason to go out at night on duty whatever his attitude to the dark.

volvojack
Posts: 1471
Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by volvojack »

jma wrote:
volvojack wrote:Hello JMA.
When i wrote that earlier i did say "Bobby" in fact believe he was working upstairs in the Dewsbury Rd. Station and in later years by a coincidence he started to go in Cross Flatts W. M. C. I am certain that his second name began with the letter D and he certainly had a grey mop. Maybe his name will come back to me ( Some chance) Cheers.
320 Dennis Dear (both names beginning with "D") was the admin sergeant when I joined and he had a full head of silvery grey hair. I don't know anything else about him; I'd have had little reason to speak to him in those days and unlike so many of the characters, I don't remember any stories about his past either. It's certainly true to say that as admin sergeant he'd have had no reason to go out at night on duty whatever his attitude to the dark.

That's the name and person for sure. maybe the Bar talk was just that. Regards. Jack Daly

MiggyBill
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri 11 Mar, 2016 6:00 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by MiggyBill »

Hello again, just to add to my previous posts, "Scottish John" from Dewsbury Road, early 70's, I am almost sure he had a moustache, dark hair an not a strong accent, this may help identify him. never called him Jock, I was always Scottish John when we talked about him although his colleagues probably called him Jock.
Does anyone remember Bobby Bennett who was a pc out of Horsforth also in the early -mid 70,s?

TABBYCAT
Posts: 375
Joined: Mon 02 Apr, 2007 6:55 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by TABBYCAT »

I remember a friend of my brother who I think was stationed at Dewsbury Rd in the 70's Jeff/Geoff Graham I think his name is if that rings a bell with anyone.

friend1
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat 20 Aug, 2016 8:29 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by friend1 »

Dear All

I am not an ex Police officer but used to be a youth liason
person for the Jewish community in Leeds and have great admiration and respect for the police officers back in the ups in particilar Dennis Holburn and his team. Does any one rember when Dennis got what he thought was the worst job in the force head of traffic.

iansmithofotley
Posts: 558
Joined: Fri 28 Dec, 2007 4:10 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by iansmithofotley »

friend1 wrote:Dear All

I am not an ex Police officer but used to be a youth liason
person for the Jewish community in Leeds and have great admiration and respect for the police officers back in the ups in particilar Dennis Holburn and his team. Does any one rember when Dennis got what he thought was the worst job in the force head of traffic.

Hi friend1,

I remember when Dennis Hoban was posted to be head of the Traffic Department at Belle Vue Road Garage. It was in about 1967 or 1968 and I think that it was possibly on his promotion to the rank of superintendent. In those days, heads of divisions and departments were superintendents and it was only later that these posts were upgraded with chief superintendents being in charge. It was the only time that I ever saw Dennis in uniform (with a crown on his shoulder) but it was not for long – only a few months.

At that time, Frank Midgeley was the head of the Leeds C.I.D. and Dennis replaced him as detective superintendent and later became detective chief superintendent. Jim Fryer (who later went on to become the Chief Constable of Derbyshire – he lived at Meanwood and I seem to remember that he is buried in the grounds of Meanwood Church) became his deputy. Later, when Jim Fryer moved on, Jim Hobson replaced him.

Dennis was pleased with his promotion but was not impressed with being posted to the Traffic Department as he was an out and out detective. I suspect that it was the handy work of the then deputy chief constable Austin Hayward who many people called the ‘smiling assassin’ and who was responsible for wrecking many peoples police careers and a man to be avoided if possible. In those days, chief constables, were required to have served in more than one force and Hayward never did, so he was never a chief constable and remained the deputy chief constable in the Leeds City Police under Alex Paterson and, later, Jim Angus. Upon the amalgamation of forces in 1974, Jim Angus became the deputy chief constable of the new force (Ronald Gregory of the West Yorkshire Police Force became the chief constable) but Jim died after just a few months and Austin Hayward replaced him and became the deputy chief constable of the force that was then called the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police (the ‘Metropolitan’ bit was dropped after just a few years).

Funnily enough, what happened to Dennis Hoban also happened to me. I was a uniform sergeant at Dewsbury Road Police Station in 1973 and saw in the ‘Weekly Record’ that I had been posted to be a sergeant in the traffic department. I had never served in the road traffic department before and had never completed any of the necessary courses. On paper, I served there for just a week but I never actually got there as it was an error, but I was still transferred to be a sergeant at Chapeltown Police Station instead. In my view, in those days, the road traffic officers were really well qualified as besides all of the many practical advanced driving courses, they had to attend other courses on accident prevention, vehicle examination, carriage of chemicals courses, etc., and the road traffic law course, which many people considered to be much harder to complete and pass than a ten week detective training course as much more tehnical legislation was involved. A couple of days after I had been ‘transferred to the traffic department’, I saw Dennis in the lift at Brotherton House Police Headquarters and he was joking with me about the transfer but pointed out to me “At least you’ll be still coppering” and he recalled when it had happened to him.

I have mentioned and praised Dennis Hoban earlier in this thread but you might be interested in this link about Dennis:

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/y ... -1-7176005

Ian

iansmithofotley
Posts: 558
Joined: Fri 28 Dec, 2007 4:10 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by iansmithofotley »

Posted in error.

iansmithofotley
Posts: 558
Joined: Fri 28 Dec, 2007 4:10 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by iansmithofotley »

MiggyBill wrote:Hello again, just to add to my previous posts, "Scottish John" from Dewsbury Road, early 70's, I am almost sure he had a moustache, dark hair an not a strong accent, this may help identify him. never called him Jock, I was always Scottish John when we talked about him although his colleagues probably called him Jock.
Does anyone remember Bobby Bennett who was a pc out of Horsforth also in the early -mid 70,s?
Hi MiggyBill,

I can’t help you with ‘Scottish John” but I can comment on ‘Bobby Bennett’. I don’t know whether or not you are referring to an officer as a ‘Bobby’ or ‘Bobby’ was his first name.

In the 1970’s, I knew a number of officers called Bennett. The first one that I came across was Jim Bennett (3) who worked at Ireland Wood Police Station when I worked there in C.I.D. in 1967. Although he was in uniform, he worked as a clerk in the C.I.D. office. He had three sons who were all in the force. They were called DS Robert Bennett (38) who I believe died in 2003 aged 50, PC Terry Bennett (866) who left the force prematurely and later became a licensee and DS Rodney Bennett (931) who became a landscape gardener after he retired. I suspect that the Bennett that you were referring to would have been one of these officers.

I knew of some other Bennetts – PC Ken Bennett (157) worked on the reception desk at Brotherton House Police Headquarters and he died in 2008 aged 85. There was PC Tony Bennett (1016) who, I believe worked at Dewsbury Road Police Station, when I was there, and died in 2005 aged 68. Arnold ("no marks") Bennett (?) was a scenes of crime and fingerprints officer. He retired in 1971 and died in 2008 aged 86. Finally, there was Mark Bennett (870) who I believe retired as a superintendent.

If you are referring to the time before 1974, Horsforth was in the West Riding area and the officer may have been in the West Yorkshire Police prior to the amalgamation of forces and I would have no knowledge of him.

Ian
Last edited by iansmithofotley on Sun 21 Aug, 2016 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

friend1
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat 20 Aug, 2016 8:29 pm

Re: Former West Yorks Police Officer's collar numbers

Post by friend1 »

Dear Ian

Thanks for the update when Dennis became head of the regional crime team at Brotherton House he help us avoid some nasty confrontations with the National Front
one night he rang me and informed us that a group of the National Front were coming to Leeds from London. They never got to Leeds they were arrested at Wakefield at
ation and put back on a train to London. If you were Chapeltown who was chief inspector and what year out paths must of crossed

Post Reply