Tom Davies obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2015/mar/24/tom-davies-obituary

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My father, Tom Davies, a former assistant chief constable of the North Wales Police, has died aged 93, in Gloucestershire, where he had made his home after retirement.

He was born in Beaumaris, Anglesey, youngest of four children of Griffith, the borough surveyor, and Sally. Tom always had ambitions to join the police force. Advised at the time that the best way for him to be accepted was to have a spell in the army with the Welsh Guards, where he could build up his physical strength and learn the discipline, he enlisted aged 17 in 1936.

During the second world war he saw action with the Guards Armoured Division after D-day. They fought through France from Normandy and he was with them as they entered Brussels on its liberation in September 1944. They continued through Belgium and Holland and suffered considerable casualties in the campaign; it was an experience that left its mark on him for the rest of his life.

When he returned to England, Tom joined the Lancashire Constabulary, fulfilling his earlier ambition on 1 April 1946. He rose steadily through the ranks, serving in Hoghton, where he was a police instructor at Stanley Grange and from there he moved, with his wife Dorothy, and two children, John and me, all over Lancashire. We had spells in Wigan, Bolton, Accrington, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Oldham, where he rose to become a superintendent, and then to Barrow-in-Furness, where he was a chief superintendent.

He left the Lancashire force in 1970, when he was appointed assistant chief constable of the North Wales Police. He remarked that there was more crime in his previous division in Oldham than in the whole of North Wales at the time. In North Wales he was responsible for traffic, communications and, with the chief constable, for the CID, as well as training and recruitment. He was particularly proud of his links with the North Wales Mountain Rescue Association, which came under his jurisdiction at the time. He always regarded himself, quite rightly, as a “proper copper”. He was well respected and popular with those under his command, and on his retirement in 1980 he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for exemplary police service.

Tom was a keen birdwatcher, with Dorothy, and a talented photographer. They spent many hours volunteering at Slimbridge Wildlife and Wetlands Trust. In recent years he had suffered from blindness and deafness, but never let his disabilities get in the way of a remarkable sense of humour and a positive attitude to life and people.

Dorothy died in 2003. Tom is survived by John and me, and by five grandchildren.