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28th February - A Day of Anniversaries




 


Middle:  Moorgate 1975 (Source U/K)

Bottom:  Stechford 1967 (Source U/K)

Top:        Great Heck 2001 (Source BTP)


Today (28th February) is the anniversary of the Stechford railway crash ((1967), the Moorgate crash (1975) and the Great Heck crash (2001).   Between them 62 people were killed in the three incidents. 

The British Transport Police played a major role in each one, as responders and as investigators.  At Moorgate (43 dead) the force investigated on behalf of the coroner and supported the inquiry carried out by Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate.  At Great Heck (10 dead) the scene was secured by BTP and the criminal and coronial investigation was led by BTP.  But read the official accounts of these incidents and there is hardly a mention of BTP.  The major book about the Moorgate Crash, for example, makes two passing references to the force and in one of these gets its title wrong.  This observation is not an attempt to detract from the vitally important role played by local forces at the scenes of these tragedies.  Policing is not a competitive activity.  But somehow in the recording of history the role of BTP has been overlooked.

In the great scheme of life this isn’t important.  But it is important that the officers who did so much at the scenes of this incidents and who worked with other agencies to mitigate and investigate them  are remembered.

 Major Incidents have always been a speciality of the railway police.  No other force has experience of events that occur around the country.  I attended major incidents in Cumbria, London, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Kent and Leicestershire, and this is a short list compared to other officers of my generation, and shorter still than that which would apply to officers who served in the 1950s and 60s.  These tragedies are an important part of the history of the country and the railway.  They are also an important part of the history of policing the railway. All the three incidents that occurred on this date are in living memory.  There is still time for officers, serving and retired, to write down their memories of what they did and how the force responded. Of course this applies to any of the hundreds of major incidents that have happened over many decades,

This therefore is a plea to record and save our history while there is still time.


28th February 2022


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