Tug Wilson, Commemorative Plaque?


What about a Plaque for Tug?  

51 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

Tug. What a lovely man he was. He took my husband under his wing when he found out he was married to a colleagues daughter. ( me)

I think my mum still has a photo of dad with Tug and someone else a bit on the portly side . They all stood taking the micky out of him. I'm going to see my mum Jan 1st so I'll ask her for it if she remembers where it is.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 67
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Dan Hyndman (1940s Uniform) and Geoff Baker.

I remember me mam telling me that she was sitting in the Square one day wearing a pair of pointed shoes, when Tug Wilson came up to her and said ' do your toes go all the way to the ends'. To which sh

Tug Wilson just popping into his tardis - dont worry sarge i will be back before you know it

Posted Images

He was still a copper when all said and done. He infringed upon my fun and pranks.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

alivisit_zps9a7eeda0.jpg

1930355_1550716728584012_584113120514648

Another Icon gone! Geoff Baker Partner to Tug Wilson has now joined his former colleague to patrol on high. Real Policemen of the day.

RIP Geoff

From a reliable source...

Geoff partnered Tug Wilson & carried King George V1 coffin as pall bearers, as Grenadier Guardsmen. Both were on a Grenadier Guards recruiting drive in Nottingham when Captain Popkess the the Chief Constable heard about them, & sent the recruiting Sgt George Scott (father of Mount Everest climber Doug Scott) to collect them both to Captain Popkess's Office at City Police HQ, & told the pair of them that he wanted them to come into the City police as soon as possible. Obviously they both did, & the rest is history. They were both the exact size 6' 8 & 1/2 " tall.

Both were on Central Division & much later Geoff went to Southern Division as a beat Cop & a special push bike was made for him by Raleigh bicycles with was very tall with 28" wheels & a double horizontal cross bars were fitted. several years later l bought this bike from the Police Authority, & l still have it. Geoff's Funeral is on Friday 5th February 2016.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

Reading this thread has reminded me of many years ago when I was a teenager and worked for a firm of Nottingham solicitors. In charge of the general office was a lovely chap named Walter Riley. who was a retired Nottingham police officer and had a number of tall tales to tell about his experiences prior to the Second World War. By the time I knew him, he was retired and working for the same firm as myself on a part time basis.

 

Mr Riley, as we all called him, had broken off his police service during the Second World War to serve in the army and had been taken prisoner by the Japanese. He rarely spoke about his experiences but I do know that during his internment in the Japanese prison camp, he had suffered beri beri and, for the rest of his life, was skeletally thin. This, combined with his more than 6 feet in height, gave him quite a gaunt and forbidding appearance but, in fact, he was a very cultured man with a wonderful sense of humour and a great person to know.

 

I recall him telling me about his very first arrest which was made on Parliament Street before the Second World War. He was patrolling on foot late one evening and noticed a rare passing car which was being driven erratically along the road. PC Riley as he then was, flagged down the vehicle and brought it to a halt. He then asked the driver to get out of the car and noted that he was so drunk, he could hardly stand up. Feeling very proud of himself, P C Riley  arrested the driver for being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle. It was his first arrest but was also almost the end of his police career when he discovered later that evening that the man he had arrested was a very high ranking police officer who was on his way home from a party!

 

I also recall Mr Riley regaling us with tales of the mortuary which was, at that time, somewhere in The Park in Nottingham. As a new Constable, he was assigned to this particular beat and some of his colleagues draped themselves in sheets, leaping out at him from behind poorly lit buildings, bearing in mind that this was the era of gas lamps and thick fog. Mr Riley said he always hated having to go into the mortuary because on one occasion, he had been speaking to one of the morticians when he noticed a body, covered with a sheet on a table behind him, starting to sit up slowly. PC Riley stood frozen to the spot with fear and it was only when the mortician noticed the young copper's eyes standing out on stalks that he turned around to see what on earth was upsetting him. "Oh, don't worry about that," said the mortician, turning around and pushing the corpse back down again. "They often do that when they've not been dead very long!"

 

Also working for the same firm was Mr Jack Downes, who was, again, retired from the police after serving his 30 years and used to deal with all our road traffic offences in court. He was also an absolute gentleman and pleasure to work with but sadly died very suddenly before his 60th birthday. I remember attending his funeral at Wilford Hill in 1976 and vividly recall the Guard of Honour from the police who carried his coffin into and out of the chapel.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Back in the early 60s with EMGAS we went to most mortuaries as they had quite a few over sink heaters as back up to their main hot water supply, like you Mick I don't remember one in the Park. I would of thought the police in those days would have been more associated with Leenside.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

Just after Tug died there was a move to put some sort of memorial to him in the OMS.   However, nobody thought to ask his widow if she approved.   I lived just round the corner from Tug and his widow appeared at my door in floods of tears because of this.   She thought that any memorial would be desecrated by the local yobs and I think she was right.

 

Incidentally, not all ex City men were guardsmen.   In fact very few were.   We were all ex servicemen though apart from the few who had been cadets.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 6 months later...

My partner who came from Nottingham and his brother Roger knew Tug and had a chat with him and had always said that he was a great man in many ways.  Although I come from Portsmouth I am always fond of listening about Tug and can understand why he was respected and feared at the same time.  Just a shame that we lost such a great man as I would liked to have met him and shake his hand and would be great to stand next to him as im only 5'1 and Tug being at a great height of 6'8 though am used to standing next to my brother-in-law as he is 6'5 and a half

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
  • 9 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...