A Grandad's Story of His 30 years in the Kent County Constabulary

By Tim Clements

“UNUSUAL AND POSSIBLY UNIQUE” - The comments of a retired Metropolitan Police Dog Sergeant who had proofread a book written by Tim Clements.

Discover the extraordinary life of a dedicated police officer in this captivating memoir. Unveiling experiences never encountered by senior officers, the author’s manuscript has finally been published. For thirty years, the author served as a Constable in Kent Police, immersing himself in a diverse range of extraordinary circumstances alongside the routine demands of the job. From handling peculiar cases to engaging in day-to-day police work, he delves into a myriad of encounters that defined his career.

As his grandson faces bullying, the author aims to inspire by showcasing that hard work, humour, and a thirst for learning can conquer anything. This expanded edition delves deeper into grassroots policing, revealing the satisfaction and worth found in one of the most challenging occupations. From bustling communities to solitary patrols covering vast areas, witness the author’s time in Tonbridge and Sevenoaks, culminating in his role as the community officer for the Otford area.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398493322

Tim Clements

Tim tried to join the Royal Air Force after leaving school, but was rejected onmedical grounds as he was partially colour blind and deaf in his left ear. He be-came a fitter and turner apprentice in Chatham Dockyard, as these problems didnot matter in that trade. Towards the end of this five-year apprenticeship, therewere periods when he was not producing anything and he became bored. Apply-ing to join Kent Police, he amazingly passed the medical and began a most unu-sual and possibly unique career, dealing with crime, deaths, natural disasters,accidents, car chases, the list goes on.

Book preview

About the Author

Tim tried to join the Royal Air Force after leaving school, but was rejected on medical grounds as he was partially colour blind and deaf in his left ear. He became a fitter and turner apprentice in Chatham Dockyard, as these problems did not matter in that trade. Towards the end of this five-year apprenticeship, there were periods when he was not producing anything and he became bored. Applying to join Kent Police, he amazingly passed the medical and began a most unusual and possibly unique career, dealing with crime, deaths, natural disasters, accidents, car chases, the list goes on.

Dedication

My grandson Tom.

I have seen him grow up from day one, and it has always been a pleasure to see him progress through all the ups and downs of life. I hope my book will always be there to fall back on should he ever go through a difficult time and show how if I could overcome problems, so can he.

Copyright Information ©

Tim Clements 2023

The right of Tim Clements to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of the author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398493315 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398493322 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.co.uk

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

20231207

Acknowledgement

A special mention must be made of my wife, Eunice. She was always there to support me, particularly after dealing with sad cases. She became even more important to me when I became the village bobby for Otford. When I was on patrol, she was my unpaid secretary, answering the phone and dealing with callers at the door. Without that support I could not have done my job. My village bobby role impacted on my children, Graham and Shirley. They suffered some abuse from other youths, yet never told me as they knew I would try to do something about it, possibly making matters worse. They just coped with it and I am grateful for that. Otford Parish Council and the numerous other organisations I had the pleasure of working with who gave me huge support, making the job even more worthwhile. Senior officers who left me alone to get on with the job, with little, if any supervision. My work colleagues for putting up with me and my sometimes-quirky way of doing things.

Introduction

At secondary school, I was occasionally bullied and had to learn the hard way to toughen up and ignore it, so the bullies soon got fed up and started on somebody else. I had always ignored name calling and had tried not to show I was upset by their actions, as if I did, they would carry on doing it.

My grandson Tom was due to start his senior school in September 2014. He had also been subject to some bullying while still at primary school, a problem not helped by the headmaster not getting a grip of the matter. I hoped by writing about how I dealt with bullying plus how I managed to turn myself from a shy slightly reserved boy (like my grandson) into a person capable of coping with all that the public could throw at me might inspire him to make the most out of his education and subsequent profession. I gave him my book (entitled I was bored) for his eleventh birthday of which this is a slightly amended copy with more details as explained below.

I have not identified the many friends and colleagues who have helped me on that journey to save me and possibly them any embarrassment. Some names however do appear on documents while others and some sections on documents have been blanked out for similar reasons. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to obtain copies of my police service record as mentioned, which helped jog my memory and enabled me to put bones to this story. I also had other material and photographs that I had collected myself or been given as well as letters etc. sent to me by members of the public or official organisations.

I am extremely grateful to all my colleagues at work as well as those in the communities in which I served for all the support and help I was given throughout my career. I have not named them as outlined above, but without that support I would never had achieved the things I did. However, a special thanks must go to my family. When I became the village bobby for Otford, both my son and daughter were subjected to a degree of bullying. The extent of this only became known to me when I retired, as they knew as their Dad I would do everything I could to protect them, which could have made matters worse. They dealt with the problem so I never knew. My wife was the main supporter. There were many times when emergencies kept me away from home, so she had to not only deal with the children, but with many telephone calls and people knocking at the door. She became my unpaid secretary, but was essential in my job, so the biggest thank you must go to her.

When I had finished my book for Tom, I gave the draft copy to some neighbours to proof read, one of them being a retired Metropolitan Police dog Sergeant. He told me that some of the things that I had been involved in were incredible, and felt others would enjoy the book if it ever got published.

Another comment was that Tom may have been a little too young to get such a gift. I did not pursue efforts to publicise this until recently, when Tom has indicated he is including joining the Police as a career option, so perhaps he has been inspired. I would be very pleased if others can be inspired as well, as the police service is a wonderful career, even if it has changed a lot since the good old days when I was serving. To be honest, any extra income from any sales would also be welcome.

I failed the 11 plus but spent all my secondary school years in the top form. I am sure that if I had passed that exam and gone to a grammar or technical school I would have been in the bottom class. I found studying hard but practical subjects were much easier, especially woodwork and metalwork. I must have done reasonably well, as I became a prefect and later the school captain. I think I got this last position as my father was a school Governor. There were many other boys who would have made a better job of it than I did.

As explained later, I tried to join the Royal Air Force but was rejected on medical grounds so instead started an apprenticeship in Chatham Dockyard. This taught me a lot, especially hand skills and understanding other people’s point of view should a difference of opinion occur, which was extremely helpful when I joined the Police. I had experience of the outside world, which would have been lacking if I had gone in straight from school.

I have always tried to work hard, knowing that if I put a lot of effort into a task, then the rewards more than justified that effort. Even when something was difficult, I found that with humour and perseverance the problem could be overcome or reduces to an acceptable level.

So, this is the story based on the book I gave my grandson. I hope you enjoy it.

Tom

You will be starting your senior school in September and this will be one of the most important periods in your education as it prepares you for exams. Your results will play a huge part in deciding what career you wish to take up. The better your results, the greater the choice of jobs that will be available to you.

I hope that what follows will inspire you to do even better than I did at school and work. Try as hard as you can at school and any further education you may take up. You will notice I often comment about my handwriting, which is terrible. Try and be neat in your written work as well as in your everyday life, as it will save you from many criticisms. Even though I had worked in civvy street for over six years, I had still led a relatively sheltered life. You will see that in joining the Police, I had to deal with all sorts of problems and situations, yet somehow I managed, gaining confidence as I got more experienced. I learnt to keep calm and never lose my temper, as while upset, it is very easy to say or do something you will later regret. You will discover that if you work hard, you will get a lot of job satisfaction and get even more out of your chosen career. You will also get noticed, such that if there is a choice of persons for a particular job, you will stand out from the crowd, and have a better chance of being selected. If you have fun while doing that job, it will be a bonus.

Be proud of your achievements, but don’t dwell on any disappointments, as we all have those to overcome sometimes in our lives.

You are very bright and intelligent and I know you will do your best to please your mum and dad, who like nanny and me, love and are extremely proud of you.

As you grow older, try and resist the temptation to go with the flow and make your own mark in life. Be honest in everything you do. If you know or suspect something is wrong, have the courage to step away, however much you are egged on to do it.

Keep well away from cigarettes, as I know from my own parents ill health what terrible harm they do, both financially and healthily. They spent so much money on cigarettes that could never afford a house, car, holiday or luxury items like a television or washing machine. The effects of all their smoking left both with lung cancer, which lead to a very painful death. Nanny’s mum and dad never smoked or drank alcohol and although they never had well paid jobs, were able to afford all these things. Never be tempted to try any form of drugs, as once hooked it’s extremely difficult to stop taking them and can devastate lives. Only drink alcohol in moderation if at all, and never when driving. When you learn to drive a car, do not be tempted to go mad, especially when you have passengers and take a pride in good driving skills. It is better to arrive late than not at all.

Be wise in how you spend your money and try and save for the future, even though that can be difficult. Be especially careful if you have a credit card, as is very easy to get into debt. In life, you will often find people have items that you wish you could have. Never get jealous, but work and save hard to achieve the same result.

Be wary of dodgy websites on the internet and never be tempted to divulge your personal details to a stranger, either over the telephone, computer or verbally. Once private details are in the public domain, they are there for everybody to see and use or abuse in all sorts of horrible ways.

You will also find you will have many school or work colleagues. However, true friends are much harder to come by and will be a lot fewer in number, so when you find them, treasure them, as they will always be there to support you.

You are a wonderful grandson and Nanny and I have had much pleasure in watching you grow up and we look forward to many more years of the same.

I hope that in the years to come, whether I am alive or not, you will be able to say to your family and friends, My Grandad inspired me to be better than him and I think I have succeeded.

With lots of love

GRANDAD

Boredom and Training

When I was due to leave school, I had applied to join the RAF as well as Chatham Dockyard. I passed both entrance exams high enough to go into the top trade, which was an electrician. I was sent to RAF Locking, the number one electrical school at Weston Super Mare, Somerset to look around, then transferred to RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire for a medical. I was somewhat apprehensive as I had never been away from home on my own. It was now I found out I was partially deaf. When I was ten, a polyp had burst in my left ear, which was cauterised at Maidstone Hospital. This medical revealed the doctor had partially missed and damaged my ear drum. No wonder it hurt so much at the time.

I hadn’t noticed any obvious effect to my hearing, but the medical staff soon found that out, informing me there was a small hole in the ear drum and I would never be allowed to fly. In those days there were very few pressurised aircraft in the RAF other than fighters and bombers. They also found out I was colour blind, which came as a big surprise. I could not see what all those coloured dots represented on the charts, yet I could recognise red, blue, green etc.

Having failed to get into the RAF, I tried the Dockyard. The medical there confirmed I was colour blind, but being partially deaf didn’t matter. My father knew the head of apprentice training and persuaded him to let me take an alternative colour test. I had to look at the front colour pages of Practical Householder and Practical Motorist magazines and was able to identify the bright colours so was offered the engine fitter and turner job, the next to top trade.

In 1960, I began a five-year fitter and turner apprenticeship in Chatham Dockyard. I was initially trained in hand tool skills before moving to Collingwood for advanced training on machines and where I attended lectures. When I first started, an apprentice in the previous intake who had bullied me at school was also there.

He tried to start again but was caught by an instructor who wished to know if I wished to make an official complaint. The bully agreed to leave me alone so no further action was taken.

Later I moved to the Dockyard itself, to be taught by a skipper on maintaining pumps, steam reciprocating and turbine engines. as well as on the fighting side of the Royal Navies ships, including 4.5 inch. 40mm, 20mm guns, anti-submarine weapons and torpedo tubes, which I really enjoyed and wished to specialise in.

However, I was the top turner in my intake, so for the last eighteen months or so of my apprenticeship, I had to work in the factory. Here I specialised in turning out bespoke items for nuclear submarines as well as limited runs of general metalwork for other classes of ships. During 1965 however, as the Royal Navy was being reduced in size, I would often have no work to do, so stood around doing nothing and getting bored.

Not wishing to waste the skills I had learnt from my apprenticeship, I thought I would join the Royal Air Force to work on Air Sea Rescue launches. However, there was still the problem of my hearing to overcome.

This time my medical was at a local Army Barracks. Again, I failed the colour-blind test. I explained that I could see colours so a senior doctor gave me a different test. This involved looking at various coloured filters held over a light. I could identify all the primary colours but was shown to be weak on red / green shades. My hearing test was done at a Harley Street Clinic on behalf of the RAF and again the hole in the ear drum was spotted. I was told the hole would sometimes close a little, so letting me hear clearer than on the days when it was larger. The result was still no RAF job for me, for although I could have worked on Air Sea Rescue launches, the ear drum problem meant I could not fly, essential in the Air Force.

I had an uncle who was Chaplin to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 2nd, as well as being Chaplin to the City of London Police Force and he had taken me to Bishopsgate Police Station on several occasions. On one visit, I had dinner with the Superintendent and his son followed by a session in the basement shooting range. Great fun.

It was this connection that led me to the idea of joining Kent Police, as well as two x-school mates who had already joined. The entrance exam and interview was the easy bit.

Needless to say, the medical was something different. I failed the colour-blind test and was going to be rejected. Luckily, I was able to persuade the panel to contact my own doctor, who had the notes from the RAF medical stating I had passed the primary colour test. Thank goodness they did so, and another medical was offered. This time the test was stating what colour a range of Dinky toys were. The hearing test was a watch being held behind my head and I had to say on which side it was. Fortunately, the hole in my ear drum had closed and I was able to pass.

Once I had joined, I found the problem with the colour blindness only caused difficulties in poor light or at night. Light coloured vehicles under street lights often looked totally different than when I saw the same vehicle in daylight. I used to ask the driver what the actual colour was, yet nobody commented that I might be colour blind.

In my thirty years’ service, none of my colleagues knew I was deaf in my left ear or spotted that out on foot patrol, I always walked so they were on my right hand side. The only problem I had with my hearing was in crowded rooms or when talking to groups of people in a vehicle. I often had to ask someone to repeat what they had just said and got the reply Are you deaf? They thought I was joking when I replied Yes.

Shortly before I retired, I was having a chat with my Superintendent and told him about the colour blindness and my hearing problems and how I had got into the Police. He was astonished and admitted he was sure none of his fellow senior officers knew. I am sure that if I tried to join now, I would fail the medical. I think the Force must have been desperate to recruit me.

The report on my initial interview at Chatham Police Station.

On the 2nd May 1966 I commenced my training at No 6 District Police Training Centre at the old Star & Garter home in Sandgate, Kent. This building had been used to treat wounded soldiers during the First World War.

The centre trained recruits from Thames Valley, Hampshire, Surrey, East & West Sussex, British Transport Police and occasionally some smaller Forces.

I found studying quite hard and my results showed this. I went from 5th to 12th out of a class of twenty-four over the three-month initial training period. Although overall, I got reasonable comments, writing, spelling and reports were not so good. I am not surprised. When I was at secondary school, my English master suggested my parents buy me a typewriter for Xmas, as my writing was so poor, and still is.

Our class instructor was a Traffic Sergeant from West Sussex. He was a bit of a maverick, hardly ever using the chalk board. All notes were written at dictation speed and at least part of a lesson involved telling jokes. He was however a great teacher and got me through the course.

The food was pretty bad, such that after each weekend, we would each take some sort of food stuff back to the centre and every evening we would have a supper club, in the dormitory to which this Sergeant when he was Duty Officer for the night would come and join us. It came to a head one Saturday lunchtime, when the senior entry, which included me placed our dinner on the tables, then refused to eat it. After the Commandant had calmed down (they had better food than us) food inspectors were called in, and things improved.

Our course clashed with the now famous 1966 football world cup. Although I am not a fan of this sport, the bar became a very popular space to frequent in the evenings and it may well be this that caused my results to go downhill.

One classmate from the small Guernsey Police Force could not get a decent shine on his boots, so asked an ex-military lad in our group how to do it. He was not used to tricks being played on him and was told to rub rough sand paper over them. It took him ages to get the scratches out. We slept in dormitories, six beds to a room. My bed was opposite the double doors leading from the corridor.

When the senior entry raided us, I was always the first to get pounced on so placed a large table at the bottom of my bed. If the doors burst open, I would kick the table over tripping them up. That backfired one evening, when the Duty Sergeant came running in for the supper club. I would often fall asleep before the rest of my roommates and would wake up to find my bed in the corridor. Perhaps I was snoring.

We were expected to fold our sheets and blankets into a blanket roll and place this at the bottom of our bed each morning, just like the Army. The dormitories were inspected on a regular basis and if the roll was not correct, it would be pulled apart and had to be remade. If my locker was untidy the contents would be tipped out onto the floor.

Luckily, having ex-Army personnel in my room made it much easier as they showed me how to do it properly. They also showed us how to get a good shine on our boots, using shoe polish, the back of a toothbrush handle, lots of spit and hard rubbing. Damp Start could be sprayed onto boots, which gave a fantastic shine, but would crack after a few hours and had to be renewed. Our trousers had to have a sharp crease and again we were taught how to do this, as once ironed, they were placed under the mattress. When I had the time, I sowed the creases in permanently.

We were inspected on the parade ground and as the senior officer stood in front of us we had to shout at the top of our voices our name, rank, number and Force. I could shout very loudly so found this easy, but some officers couldn’t and would have to try several times, which was quite funny. Anything wrong was punished by having to do several laps of the parade ground in full uniform or squatting down while doing hand signals.

I fainted on parade one morning. When I came around, I got no sympathy and after a few deep breaths had to resume my position. Again, the ex-Army lads helped. They told me to squeeze my buttocks, wobble my toes inside my boots and not stare too hard at any object, all without moving.

When we became the senior entry, all the strict rules started to relax and we were dealt with more as adults than overgrown children, although we sometimes acted like them. We were even allowed to go out on one evening a week, but had to be back by 2230.

We would often play tricks