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ThePolice Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based inLondon. The trust's objective is to erect memorials toBritishpolice 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 producerMichael Winner. Inspired by the fatal shooting on 17 April 1984 ofWPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, Winner wrote aletter to the editor ofThe 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 atSt James's Square in London by the then prime ministerMargaret Thatcher on 1 February 1985.
The trust's third memorial, and the first to be erected outside London, was sited at the seafront atFrinton-on-Sea,Essex, wherePC Brian Bishop was fatally shot by an armed robber on 22 August 1984. Bishop's memorial was unveiled by the then home secretaryDouglas Hurd, on 19 February 1986.
On 3 October 2008, Prime MinisterGordon Brown unveiled a monument inLuton to mark the site of the fatal stabbing of PCJonathan Henry.
By the end of 2024, a total of 60 memorials in honour of police officers killed on duty have been erected throughout the United Kingdom.[1] They includeInsp Raymond Codling and the three officers who died in theShepherd's Bush Murders;PC Keith Blakelock;PC Sharon Beshenivsky; andPC Ged Walker.
In the mid-1990s the Police Memorial Trust proposed a single memorial for all police officers who had died in the course of their duties. This became TheNational Police Memorial, which is sited inSt James's Park at the junction ofHorse Guards Road andThe Mall. It was unveiled on 26 April 2005 byElizabeth II on behalf of the Police Memorial Trust. It contains a list of all the officers who died, supplied by thePolice Roll of Honour Trust.
