This marble tablet with gold lettering was originally on the wall of the Oxford City Police Station at 5 Blue Boar Street.
It is now on the wall of St Michael-at-the-Northgate, the Oxford City Church
Oxford City Police War Memorial on the Database of the Imperial War Museums
and on War Memorials Online
[City coat of arms]
OF THE TOTAL STRENGTH OF
79 MEMBERS OF THE
OXFORD CITY POLICE FORCE
41 JOINED HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES
FOR SERVICE IN THE GREAT WAR
1914 – 1918.
THE UNDERMENTIONED MEN MADE
THE SUPREME SACRIFICE.
EDWARD COLLETT.
GEORGE JUDD.
CHARLEY MARTIN
ALBERT TAYLOR.
LEST WE FORGET
A separate memorial in the church (below) remembers the four police officers who fell in the Second World War (IWM):
IN HONOURED MEMORY
OF
HERBERT HACKSLEY
HAROLD HEATH
ILTID THOMAS
FREDERICK THOMPSON
OFFICERS OF THE OXFORD CITY POLICE
WHO FELL IN THE WORLD WAR 1939–1945
On the first floor of St Aldate's Police Station in Oxford there is also this wooden frame flanked by scrolls and containing photographs of each of the deceased, with the WW1 men in police uniform and the WW2 men in military uniform (IWM)
It first lists those who died in the First World War, with their photographs under their names:
E. COLLETT / W. JUDD / C. MARTIN / A. TAYLOR
It then commemorates those policeman who died in the Second Word War, with their names beneath their photographs:
ALSO IN HONOURED MEMORY OF
ILTID THOMAS / HERBERT HACKSLEY / HAROLD HEATH / FREDERICK THOMPSON
WHO FELL IN THE WORD WAR 1939–1945
Brief biographies of the four police officers who were killed in the First World War
The service numbers of the last three men on this memorial are all very close, as they enlisted together as volunteers on the same day in May 1915.
Edward John COLLETT
Serjeant in “C” Company, 5th Battalion, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 12748)
Died in France on 1 May 1917, aged 31.
Son of James and Sarah Collett, of Appleford, Berkshire and husband of Rose Elizabeth Collett, of Bedford Road, Wilshamstead (now spelt Wilstead), Bedfordshire.
Buried at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France (ref. IX.F.11).
Paid inscription on headstone:
THE DEARLY LOVED HUSBAND OF ROSE ELIZABETH COLLETT
Also listed on the Wilstead, Bedfordshire war memorial
CWGC / City Honour Roll
George Gibbard JUDD
Corporal in 129th Howitzer Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (Service No. 291929). Military Medal
Died in France on 8 May 1918, aged 29.
Husband of Mrs. E. F. Judd, of 83 East Avenue, Oxford.
Buried at Couin New British Cemetery, France (ref. D43)
CWGC / City Honour Roll (wrongly listed as Serjeant)
Photographs of Judd (who was born in Brackley, but is not on their war memorial)
Charles MARTIN
Corporal in the 132nd (Oxford) Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (Service No. 291924)
Died in
France on 15 May 1917, aged 37
Husband of Mrs D. E. Martin, of 54 Norreys Avenue, Oxford.
Buried at Athies Communal Cemetery Extension, France (ref. K.14).
Paid inscription on headstone: GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS
Also on St John the Evangelist Church war memorial in Lake Street, Oxford
CWGC / City Honour Roll
Albert George TAYLOR
Serjeant in the 132nd (Oxford) Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (Service No. 291926)
Died in France on 1 October 1917, aged 28
Son of Joseph and Martha Maria Taylor; husband of Hilda Jane Taylor, of South View, Standlake, near Witney.
Buried at The Huts Cemetery, Belgium (ref. VII.B.4).
Paid inscription on headstone: I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE
Also listed on St Matthew's Church war memorial (biography, linked to a fuller PDF version by Barry Burnham)
CWGC / City Honour Roll
Brief biographies of the above four men, with a photograph of Albert Taylor in his police uniform, The lost Oxford Constabulary War MemorialThere was also a memorial to nine men of the Oxfordshire Constabulary who died in the First World War at the entrance to the Oxfordshire Constabulary Headquarters, which were on New Road at the junction of Tidmarsh Lane. This was lost when the premises were demolished in 1969, but there is a photograph of it here on the Imperial War Museum's website |
