'Once you met Rosie, you couldn’t forget her, for all the right reasons'

10 February 2025

A North Yorkshire Police Federation member has paid tribute to his colleague and good friend PC Rosie Prior, saying she has left a huge hole in their team, the Force, and the community.

Martin Scott worked alongside Rosie in Acomb, York and has spoken about their friendship, her family, and her love for coffee.

On the morning of 11 January, mother-of-two Rosie, 45, had stopped to help at an incident and was standing on the verge of the A19 at Bagby, when she and another male were struck by a heavy goods vehicle just before 9am. Sadly Rosie and a member of the public, Ryan Welford, both died at the scene.

Martin said: “She was such a brilliant and bubbly person and a massive character.

“She has left a massive hole in our within our shift.

PC Rosie Prior.

“There were a lot of people who knew her within the initial training department and who she has touched within the force. Once you met Rosie, you couldn’t forget her, for all the right reasons.

“And there are a lot of people in the community too, who have expressed their condolences.

“She’s left a massive gap, but she’s also left a lot of good memories.”

Admiration

Martin said he had nothing but admiration for Rosie, who came into policing three years ago after running a successful business.

He said he admired the way she balanced home life with work and studying for a degree, which wasn’t always easy. Rosie epitomised a modern working woman, giving 100 per cent at everything she did, whether as a police officer or as a mother and a wife, he said.

“She would be finishing an assignment on holiday, or while her kids were swimming, she would be on her laptop researching a module or doing her dissertation,” he said.

“She would come off the night shift, get a couple of hours’ sleep and then be back out at hockey or swimming with her sons, just so that her family could do everything they needed to do to try and strive to be as good as they could be, something that was just Rosie through and through and made Rosie who she was.

Happy balance

“She was always on the go, trying to ensure a happy balance between work and her family. I’m similar and we always said we wouldn’t want it any other way.

“She was a mother of two, holding down a full-time job, and studying for a degree, and I really admired her for all she did.”

Martin said that his and Rosie’s paths first crossed when she joined the Force. As a rep he was talking to student officers about the Federation and its benefits.

“Being of an older generation, she understood and related to what I was talking about,” he said. “And then when she came across to Acomb, we hit it off.

“One example was she used to be a barista. She had her own business and would go to events all over North Yorkshire in her coffee van.

Hit it off

“So when I mentioned coffee, the dehydrated stuff, she would say you can’t drink that rubbish and would bring in a cafetiere of posh coffee. We just instantly hit it off.”

Martin said that Rosie would lend a listening ear or offer advice to colleagues, often over a coffee.

He said: “She was a brilliant person. She was approachable, she would listen, she would take on other people’s problems.

“You’d have a coffee at 3am or 4am and some people on shift would come to talk to her.

“I know Special Constables would talk to her, new recruits, and even people outside the job spoke to her.

“She gave an honest answer and an honest opinion, and she had a good knack of turning things around for you.

Positive outlook

“She was knowledgeable but was always prepared to draw on other people’s experiences and to learn.”

Martin has said that he and his colleagues have benefitted from knowing Rosie, drawing from her positive outlook on life and being such an independent, strong person, something he feels everyone could learn from. Martin has said that Rosie will never be forgotten and will live in his and his colleague's memory forevermore.

Martin and Rosie’s close colleagues have been offered the opportunity to be pallbearers at Rosie’s funeral, and he said it will be ‘an absolute honour’ to carry out the role, not only for her but also her family, something that he and his colleagues will cherish for life.

Rosie’s funeral is set to take place on Thursday (13 February).

Donations

Her husband, Chris, is asking that donations be made to The Police Children’s Charity following the ‘amazing support’ he and their two children have received since the accident.

Donations to The Police Children’s Charity can be made via a JustGiving page created in Rosie’s honour.

For more information on the funeral, please email the Federation office: YourFederationNYPF@polfed.org