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Blackpool PCs remembered 30 years after sea deaths | Blackpool PCs remembered 30 years after sea deaths |
(about 14 hours later) | |
A memorial service has been held to mark 30 years since three police officers died in an attempted sea rescue at Blackpool. | |
PCs Colin Morrison, Gordon Connolly and Angela Bradley drowned trying to save a holidaymaker who entered the sea to rescue his pet dog on 5 January 1983. | PCs Colin Morrison, Gordon Connolly and Angela Bradley drowned trying to save a holidaymaker who entered the sea to rescue his pet dog on 5 January 1983. |
Their families were joined by members of Lancashire Police past and present and members of the public. | |
Ch Supt Richard Debicki said the fallen officers made "the ultimate sacrifice". | |
He said: "I know for those on duty, for all the emergency services at the time, the harrowing events of that day are all still too clear. | |
"One can only imagine how difficult it must have been for them to hear that trusted friends and colleagues had been lost during this dreadful incident. | |
"But it is the pain and loss for the families, who lost their loved ones, that is the greatest and deepest." | |
The service was held at Gynn Square, close to where the officers went into the sea. | |
They were overcome by the strong tide, waves and freezing cold water as they tried to rescue 25-year-old Alistair Anthony, from Glasgow, who also died as he tried to save his Jack Russell. | |
A fourth officer, PC Pat Abram, was rescued by colleagues who were able to throw a rope around his neck, before he was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the prom. | A fourth officer, PC Pat Abram, was rescued by colleagues who were able to throw a rope around his neck, before he was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the prom. |
During the service a two-minute silence was observed and a bell, donated by Lancashire Fire Service in memory of the fallen officers, rang out for each of them. | |
Local preacher Tom Birch read A Lament To The Absent by Edwin Muir. | |
Chief Constable Steve Finnigan and members of the fallen officers' families then laid flowers under a plaque at Gynn Square which serves as a permanent memorial to their bravery. | |
After the service, local doctor John Frankland, who attended the rescue and helped revive PC Abram, said: "The weather was absolutely savage that night. | |
"The wind was very strong, the waves were very high, it was cold, threatening. Not the day to be in the sea at all. | |
"All these people here today, paying their respects to those who died so long ago, shows how deeply that sadness was felt." | |
A memorial to all emergency service staff who have died on duty will be unveiled later this year. | |
On New Year's Day Paul Morris, 41, died when he was swept into the sea while walking his dog on the town's South Shore. |