Fallen colleagues honoured at COPS Service of Remembrance

31 July 2023

Christine Fulton talks about the background to the establishment of COPS.

Hundreds of police officers have joined the families of fallen officers at the annual Care of Police Survivors (COPS) Service of Remembrance.

The poignant ceremony came on the 20th anniversary of the charity and, as usual, marked the end of the 200-mile Police Unity Tour cycle ride.

Suffolk Police Federation chair Darren Harris said: “The COPS service is an important date on the policing calendar and gives officers the chance to remember fallen colleagues and their families.

“COPS does an incredible job supporting the loved ones of police officers who have lost their lives and will always have our backing.”

The service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire heard from a number of speakers whose lives have been affected by the death of a family member in the police service.

COPS co-founder and vice-president Christine Fulton, whose husband PC Lewis Fulton was stabbed to death in Glasgow in 1994, spoke of the importance of peer support for survivors.

Reflecting on the charity’s first meetings two decades ago,  Christine said: “For the first time they could talk about their officers without fear of making the listener feel uncomfortable or becoming upset if they became upset.

“We didn’t mind. If they cried we cried with them, if they laughed we laughed with them. Sometimes we laughed and cried at the same time.

“And that peer support is what is at the very heart of this charity.”

The memorial service also heard from Caroline Cox, whose older brother Inspector Mark Estall of Essex Police died in January 2017, and Katy McMurray, whose dad PC Alan McMurray of Lothian and Borders Police died in February 2006 when she was just two-years-old.

COPS national president Gill Marshall gave an address before wreaths were laid by representatives of the Office of the Lieutenancy, the High Sheriff’s Office, the Home Office, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Fire & Rescue Services, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Blue Light, the Police Unity Tour, the National Memorial Arboretum and COPS.

The service included a roll of honour including the names of officers who have died in the 12 months since the last COPS service.

They were: 

PC Daniel Golding of the Metropolitan Police who died on 18 August 2022;

PCSO Daniel Gower of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary who died on 23 November 2022;

PS Steven Creal of Sussex Police who died on 21 December 2022;

PC Richard Kemp of Lancashire Constabulary who died on 27 December 2022;

PC Bruce Lister of Hertfordshire Police who died on 30 January 2023;

PC Neil Pattinson of Northumbria Police who died on 27 February 2023;

PC Andy Boardman of West Mercia Police who died on 11 April 2023, and

Inspector Gareth Earp of Dyfed Powys Police who died on 29 June 2023.

Sir Peter Fahy, chair of the COPS trustees, gave a closing speech after a flypast and bow by a National Police Air Service helicopter.

Officers, police survivors, family members and guests then laid red roses and wreaths at The Beat, the arboretum’s avenue of trees honouring fallen officers.

People can still make donations via the COPS JustGiving page.