Percy Edward Day was a Police officer in the Woodhall area of Welwyn Garden City during the Second World War.
He was my grandfather and lived in Holywell Road, then Twelve Acres.
I don’t know when he joined the police or when he left but my dad and some of my dads cousins talk of him during the war and when they were children so during the late 1940s.
I have been told that he was known for riding his bicycle round the area of Woodhall shops and being able to flick any boys causing trouble with the corner of his cape.
There are two photographs of him – if anybody knows anything more about his time as a policeman my family would be thrilled to hear.
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Hi Lyn, Another member of the Herts Police Historical Society here – I can add a little bit of extra information for you – Percy was indeed a member of the Police War Reserve. He was appointed on 21st March 1940, was given the number 145 and would have worked in the Welwyn/Welwyn Garden City area.
Paul thank you. Yes that is definitely my grandfather. That doesn’t surprise me really because I would have expected to have heard more about it if he was a regular officer.
Hi Lyn I am a member of the Hertfordshire Police Historical Society and I was very interested to read your post about your grandfather. I have checked our archive but I couldn’t immediately find any records for him. This is not completely surprising as our records for the WW2 period are, unfortunately, not very good.
I also did some online research and found in the 1939 Register, which was completed just after war was declared, a Percy E. Day born 28th April 1903 employed as a wireless mechanic, married to Ada E. Day and living at 132 Holwell Road, Welwyn Garden City. From the information you have given this would seem to be your grandfather.
As he was not shown as a Police Constable in the Register I believe he was almost certainly a War Reserve Constable – a volunteer Special Constable. Wikipedia has more information about their formation and roles. Something like 100 Hertfordshire Police Officers joined the Military during WW2 so as you can imagine they needed to replace as many of them as possible – one way was to recruit War Reserve Constables who had the full powers of a regular Constable.