Thursday 19 November 2020

Scam Alert from Durham County Council

!! SCAM ALERT !!

Durham County Council have received reports of residents receiving a text message advising that they may be eligible to claim a Covid-19 grant. The message contains a link to a website which looks very similar to a Durham County Council webpage. The page has information on different support you can apply for but each leads to an application form which requests your personal details, card details and even information like your mother’s maiden name.

Durham County Council will never ask you to share these details and will never contact you by text regarding support payments.

You may receive a letter or email from Durham County Council offering support in response to your application for Covid-19 support payments. Further information about support related to Covid-19 is available at: www.durham.gov.uk/article/22971/Covid-19-support-for-residents.

If you receive any contact that claims to be from Durham County Council that you are unsure is genuine, please contact us on 03000 260 260.

More information on our Corporate Fraud Team can be found at: www.durham.gov.uk/counterfraud and the team can contacted by email at corporatefraudteam@durham.gov.uk

Death of a retired Police Officer : Sgt 120 Randolph Ripley

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of a retired Police Officer : Sgt 120 Randolph Ripley.
Randolph died on the 6th November 2020 aged 97 years.
Randolph served with Durham Constabulary as a Sergeant before his retirement on 31st August 1977.
Randolph was a much loved Father to Michael and Pauline, grandfather to four and great grandfather to seven who will be greatly missed by all his family and friends.
A funeral will take place at Stanhope Methodist Church on 25th November 2020 at 1230pm.
All are welcome to attend but must remain outside of the church and meet the current restrictions.
Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.
Donations in lieu of flowers have been requested to The British Heart Foundation.

Link to subscribe to Durham NARPO email list


If you happen to accidently unsubscribe from The Durham NARPO email list. ( or already have done so)

We cannot then add you back on the list ( To prevent you from receiving unwanted emails from us)

If you have took yourself off the list for whatever reason you can subscribe again, by clicking on this link : http://eepurl.com/sEmiX

You will then be presented with a web page similar to the picture. All you have to do is enter your email, First name, Last Name and then press the subscribe button and you’ll be back on the emailing list

Tuesday 17 November 2020

Winter 2020 Newsletter

Due to restrictions with Covid 19  The Peeler magazine was unable to be published and distributed.

The Durham Branch committee therefore decided to publish a Winter 2020 Newsletter which members will be receiving through the post together with a 2021 diary & Durham NARPO Branch pen.

To view this newsletter online please click on the picture which will allow you to read it online.

The newsletter will also be available to view from the Peeler page of this website

Death of a Retired Police Officer : PC 867 Fredrick McHenry (Mac)

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of a Retired Police Officer : PC 867 Fredrick McHenry who died peacefully in hospital on 7th November 2020 aged 89 years.
'Mac' served Durham Constabulary as a Dog Handler prior to his retirement on 18th January 1980.
Fredrick was a dearly loved husband to Kathleen, much loved father of Peter and Sharon and a very proud Grandpa.
The funeral service will be taking place at Darlington Crematorium on Thursday 19th November, at 1.45pm but due to current restrictions will be a private service for family only.
Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.
Donations in lieu of flowers have been requested to The British Heart Foundation.

Wednesday 11 November 2020

New Police HQ in autumn

An autumn shot of the Police HQ taken by drone.

Picture shows the old HQ radio mast still lying on the left of picture and the new housing estate where the original Aykley Heads was situated.

S.I.O Course at HQ (August 2007)

S.I.O Course held at HQ in August 2007.

L to R : Ken Pullan, Joanne Malkin, Laz Szomoru, Stu Exley, Bill Bentham, Lee Morris, Alan Hutchinson, Paul Goundry, Andy Huddleston, Jonathan Morgan, Martin Peace, Ian Dey (Northumbria), Vicki Martin, Dave Gibbs.

View more Durham NARPO photos at :

Those were the (Durham NARPO) days.....

A motley crew from about 2003



One from Dave Vickers from about 2003 he believes. Taken outside the Traffic block at HQ: L to R :

Colin Mortimer. Dave Vickers. Jeff Miller. Alan Humphreys. Mick O’Hanlon. Paul Wood.


View more Durham NARPO photos at :

 Those were the (Durham NARPO) days.....

Death of a retired Police Officer : PC 1313 Francis (Frank) Dowdle

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of a retired Police Officer : PC 1313 Francis (Frank) Dowdle aged 80 years, who died due to a short illness with Covid, on Tuesday 3rd November
Frank Dowdle was appointed on 10th April 1961 where he served Durham Constabulary at HQ in training, he also worked in Stockton, Stillington, Chester le Street, Sacriston, Pelton and Seaham prior to his retirement on 7th February 1991.
Francis will be greatly missed by all his family and friends.
The Funeral Service will take place on Tuesday 17th November 2020 at 2pm at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Ropery Lane,  Chester le Street,  DH3 3PH,  followed by a cremation at Durham Crematorium at 3.30pm.
Family have stipulated you are welcome to attend to pay your last respects to Francis but must adhere to social distancing guidelines outside of the Church and Crematorium.
Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.
Donations in lieu of flowers have been requested to Cancer Research.

Sunday 8 November 2020

A time to reflect on Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day.

It was first observed in 1919, however until 1945 it was called Armistice Day. Traditionally there is two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that was the time (in Britain) when the armistice became effective in 1918.
Today, in the UK Remembrance Sunday is also observed on the Sunday nearest to November 11th. So, in the United Kingdom, two minutes' silence is observed on November 11 itself, and on the second Sunday of November. Remembrance Sunday, ceremonies are held at War Memorials, all over the UK and over the years it has become a day to commemorate not just the sacrifice of servicemen and women but the suffering of civilians in times of war.

Remembrance Sunday is commemorated by church services around the UK and a parade of ex-service personnel in London’s Whitehall. Wreaths of poppies are placed on war memorials from the Cenotaph, a war memorial in Whitehall, to the tiniest war memorials in villages all over Britain. Small wooden crosses are placed in Gardens of Remembrance as private acts of remembering individual losses and suffering and people pin poppies to their coat or jacket.

History states that it was the poem 'In Flanders Fields' written in 1915 by Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian Medical Officer, that captured the imagination of the British people in the dark days of trench warfare on the Western Front when so many young soldiers failed to return. Six months before the Armistice, McCrae was brought on a stretcher to a big hospital on the French coast and saw the cliffs of Dover from his room. He died that night and was buried in a cemetery above Wimereux. Before he died, he said to the doctor: "Tell them this . . . If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep." An American woman, Miss Moina Michael, wrote a moving poem in reply and bought 25 red poppies, wearing one herself as a way to keep faith with the war dead; a French woman, Madame Guerin, came up with the practical idea of making and selling artificial poppies to help ex-service men and their dependents in need.

Britain's first Poppy Day was held in 1921 and the money raised helped children in war-devastated areas. The Royal British Legion opened its own poppy factory in London in 1922 to give practical help in time of need to all who have served in the armed forces and their widows and dependents. The paper poppies that are worn today are made by ex-service personnel and are sold by representatives of the Royal British Legion, an organisation of ex-servicemen and women. Today, they make more than 35 million poppies and 65,000 wreaths for the annual poppy appeal. Poppies grew in great abundance in the shell-torn fields of Flanders during the War. Because of its abundance it became the symbol of remembrance of two world wars.

In Flanders Fields

The poem by John McCrae

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

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