Police Memorial Trust

The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as a permanent reminder to the public of the sacrifice they made.

The Police Memorial Trust was the brainchild of film producer Michael Winner. Inspired by the fatal shooting on 17 April 1984 of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, Winner wrote a letter to the editor of The Times newspaper suggesting a memorial be erected in Fletcher's honour. After receiving donations from members of the public, Winner established the trust on 3 May 1984.

The first Police Memorial Trust memorial was erected for Fletcher and was unveiled at St. James's Square in London by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher on 1 February 1985.

The trust's third memorial, and the first to be erected outside London, was sited at the seafront at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, where PC Brian Bishop was fatally shot by an armed robber on 22 August 1984. Bishop's memorial was unveiled by the then home secretary Douglas Hurd, on 19 February 1986.

The most recent memorial was unveiled by the then prime minister Gordon Brown in Luton on 3 October 2008 to mark the site of the fatal stabbing of PC Jonathan Henry.

A total of thirty-eight memorials in honour of forty-three police officers killed on duty have been erected throughout the United Kingdom. They include Insp Raymond Codling and the three officers who died in the Shepherd's Bush Murders; PC Keith Blakelock; PC Sharon Beshenivsky; and PC Ged Walker.

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