Police_World_02_2018

Article

A very special AGM and a very special attendee! Mike Chappell , Cornwall Branch

A very well attended annual general meeting of the Cornwall Branch IPA, which saw new volunteers step up to the mark and take up committee posts, was made even more special by the attendance of a founder member of the IPA, now resident in Cornwall, retired police officer, Mr. Derrick Hibberd, aged a remarkable 91 years – not that you would ever guess that when meeting him! - and bearing the IPA Membership Number 33! Derrick left school aged 16 years and obtained work as a police messenger in the Blackpool Borough Police. There, he was issued with a uniform and a new bicycle. O n reaching the age of 17, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy which he joined in March of that year. Shortly after the end of the war, the Chief Constable of Blackpool, wrote to Derrick Derrick was appointed UK secretary for Scandinavia and helped with the inclusion of Denmark and Iceland into the IPA family.

He was transferred into the CID after about 15 years’ service and attended the Metropolitan Police detective training school at Hendon and promoted uniformed sergeant after 20 years’ service. He then saw an advertisement in the ‘Police Review’ notifying of a vacancy for a uniformed Inspector in the Ipswich Borough Police, applied and was duly appointed. Ipswich Borough was amalgamated with two county forces, East and West Suffolk and became the Suffolk Constabulary. In those times, the police prosecuted many of the cases in the Magistrates’ Courts and Derrick enjoyed this part of his career. A reorganisation of the Suffolk Constabulary resulted in his promotion to Chief Inspector and he became responsible for ‘Ipswich Rural’, an area which completely surrounded the town of Ipswich and included an abundance of villages. Derrick retired 29 years later. His war service in the Royal Navy qualified him for an additional 12 months service towards his well earned police pension. After retirement from the police, he obtained work with a local firm of agricultural merchants which had several branches in East Anglia and took up responsibility for security and maintenance of buildings and stores. Seven years passed by and Derrick again retired to became an advisor for the Citizens Advice Bureau. Derrick’s father was a church organist and he himself become a lover of organ music. He was taught to play the piano as a boy and finally he had time to take organ lessons. It was not long before he was being sought by the vicars of local churches and was eventually appointed organist at three rural churches which were in the same benefice where he and the rural Dean became and have remained good friends. Now at the age of 91 years, Derrick describes his life as more leisurely! On a very wet and windy evening, the normal weather in Cornwall, it was wonderful to meet up in a spirit of friendship and to share the company of this grand IPA member whose presence enriched the successful Branch AGM gathering.

informing him that if he joined the Blackpool Police, he could obtain his early release from the navy. After much thought, he finally agreed and a long association with the police began. He remained in the Blackpool Police until after 20 years’ service by which time he was a uniformed sergeant. Derrick recalls seeing a letter in the ‘Police Review’ written by Arthur Troop in which he invited communication from any member of the police who was in contact with a serving member in a foreign police force. Well, Derrick had a friend called Leif Skotnes who was a detective in the CID in Oslo, Norway. At this time Derrick was a constable in the Blackpool Borough Police and Leif brought about 30 members of the Oslo Police language club to Blackpool where they stayed in a local hotel. It took a few years, but eventually Leif was instrumental in forming a section of the IPA in Norway. Together with his wife and two small sons, Derrick went to Oslo by ferry from Newcastle. There, he and his wife stayed with Leif and his wife. Their sons stayed with Alan Holmquvist, one time IPA president. Leif and Derrick remained friends until Leif died about 10 or more years ago.

POLICE WORLD Vol 63 No. 2, 2018

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