Life in the force: Ex police Superintendent recalls royal visits and New Zealand's worst railway disaster & More News Here

Ex police officer and nonagenarian Bob Silk has sufficient wealthy reminiscences of policing to fill a ebook, writes Helen Harvey.

Bob Silk has been having the similar nightmare off and on for 68 years.

He is standing on a river financial institution taking a look at ‘’a scene from hell”, then he’s strolling by means of mangled prepare carriages searching for indicators of life amongst the useless.

It is the early hours of Christmas Day, 1953. And he’s at Tangiwai.

At 10.21pm on Christmas Eve, the Wellington to Auckland prepare had crashed off the tracks into the flooded Whangaehu River​. Silk’s nightmare relives the aftermath of New Zealand’s worst prepare accident, the place 151 of the 285 passengers and crew died.

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That Christmas, Silk, now 91 and dwelling in New Plymouth, was a younger Constable stationed in Auckland, having joined the police a number of months earlier than. He had been on nightshift, seeing the Queen arrive again at Government House after being visitor of honour at a ball.

He watched her drive by means of the gates and then headed off to get dinner at the station. There, he was met by the night time station Sergeant, an ex heavyweight champion nicknamed Bruiser. Bruiser advised Silk he needed to drive Minister of Police Wilfred Fortune and Police Commissioner Eric Compton to Tangiwai.

Silk didn’t know the place Tangiwai was.

It wasn’t till he stopped at the police station in Hamilton for petrol that he came upon what had occurred, he says.

It was an unforgettable begin to an attention-grabbing profession that spanned 33 years and ended with Silk ranked Superintendent and being the northern district commander.

Not surprisingly he has a number of tales. Many about royalty.

Like the one about the late Queen Mother.

In 1958 Silk and some colleagues have been the armed plainclothes guards in Government House in Auckland throughout the Queen Mother’s go to.

‘’We have been in the grounds and heard voices.’’

It was the Queen Mother and her lady-in-waiting having fun with the view.

“In those days you could see right down the harbour. We identified ourselves. She started talking. She asked if I was married. I explained my wife was pregnant with our first child. She was very easy to talk to.”

Fast-forward to 1966 and the Queen Mother was visiting Christchurch. Silk, now a chief Inspector, was in cost of the royal tour, and was formally launched to the royal.

‘’She stated, ‘Silk. Silk. Was it a boy or a girl? Your firstborn?’”

Later he came upon she had a photographic reminiscence and was good at remembering names.

“She was the loveliest of them all to look after. I was body guard for (Prince) Philip​. He was the most awkward of all the royals to look after. He’s an ex admiral and admirals have a different attitude to dealing with lower ranks.”

His funniest story is about the Queen and Prince Philip’s go to to Kaikohe in 1981.

The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and their entourage had deliberate to go ashore on Motuarohia/Roberton​ Island.

The royals didn’t need any police on the island, however as a result of the Governor General’s automobile had been attacked at Waitangi earlier in the yr ‘’it was out of the query that there needs to be no police presence’’.

None of the property house owners have been going to be dwelling that weekend, so a plainclothes Armed Offenders Squad group and a canine handler have been despatched to remain in a single day, hidden, at the caretaker’s barn, whereas observing the royal social gathering. It sounded good in concept.

The Sunday morning dawned gray, overcast with misty rain. Everyone assumed the go to can be known as off, which, as Silk came upon later, was what the Duke of Edinburgh had needed.

“Evidently, there was what we would usually call a domestic and the Queen pulled rank.”

To get to the picnic home the royal social gathering had a 30-minute stroll up a steep monitor by means of heavy bush. Once they have been safely inside, a few of the police officers and the canine went to a different home, which that they had permission to make use of, to have lunch, he says. The remaining two police officers stored watch.

“Well there must have been another tiff between the Queen and the Duke, because the next thing the door flies open. She comes out on her own buttoning up her raincoat and walks off up the hill. The cop watching from the bush tried to radio his colleagues.”

Up the hill, one among the constables grabbed his rifle and rushed out the door. As he jumped off the verandah the Queen rounded the nook.

He eliminated his hat and ‘’in a sweeping gesture, like a courtier of outdated, he known as out ‘Beg your pardon, ma’am, Beg your pardon ma’am’.’’

He thenstepped backwards over a 200-metre-high cliff, touchdown on a ledge. The Queen seemed over, checked he was all proper, requested if he was a policeman and if he may stand up by himself. She then went into the home, by now accompanied by her lady-in-waiting and her equerry.

After she had seemed round she went upstairs the place two officers have been attempting to cover. When the Queen seemed into the master suite she discovered the canine handler attempting to cover his canine, the 1981 Police Dog Champion, underneath the mattress.

“Then, as he would insist on telling anybody who would listen in the weeks and years ahead, she sat down on the bed and talked to him.”

Meanwhile, the canine put his head in her lap as the Queen rubbed his ears.

As Silk tells it, the Queen continued trying round the home and opened the door to a small cubicle. Inside was a Constable standing to consideration with a rifle by his aspect, eyes straight forward. After asking him if he all the time had a bathe together with his boots on she shut the door.

The subsequent day Silk, fearful about repercussions, had a chat with the Queen’s private safety officer.

The Queen needed to test the Constable who had gone over the cliff was all proper, the officer had stated. Then he advised Silk the complete day had been a disaster – till “that’’ had happened.

Apparently the Queen is a wonderful mimic and had the royal party in hysterics as she told the story of her meeting with the police officers.

After the tour Silk received a personally signed photograph of the Queen and the Duke in a leather frame along with an appreciation letter on HM Yacht Britannia letterhead. He still has it.

It hangs on the wall in his office and will be handed down to someone in his family.

He has three children, six grandchildren and “about the same number of great-grandchildren”. More lately, Silk wrote a memoir to share together with his household and associates, with some copies donated to his native library.

Silk met his late spouse Pamela when he ended up in hospital with a damaged nostril after an altercation with a burglar he got here throughout whereas strolling the beat.

‘’When I got here out of the anaesthetic I attempted to tug the bolster off my nostril, [the nurse] grabbed my wrist, however I flicked her wrists and threw her again. Later the man in the subsequent mattress advised me what I’d carried out. She was a tall, very enticing blonde. That night time I advised my girlfriend, when she got here in, to not come again as a result of I used to be going to marry that nurse.’’

They have been engaged for 2 years and married when she was 21. They have been collectively for 57 years.

Though Silk admits it took her awhile to conform to exit with him – she was ‘’good lady from the North Shore” whereas, he was 5 years older, ‘’a cop,’’ and ‘’a pom” .

Silk was born in Bournemouth, England, right into a household of undertakers. He wasn’t in going into the household enterprise. Instead, he turned an expert ice skater.

‘’My father was not completely satisfied.’’

His dad and mom determined to maneuver to New Zealand and his father advised Silk if he didn’t need the enterprise he’d promote it, Silk says.

If he stayed in the UK, he would’ve needed to do obligatory army coaching and go to Germany as a squaddie.

So, he got here to New Zealand and bought a job in an ice skating present and later turned stage supervisor for the ‘’first of the large stage hypnotists Francis Quinn, referred to as the Great Franquin.’’

Silk later moved to Australia, however bought sick of the theatre.

‘’I walked away from it and determined I needed to be a cop, don’t know why.’’

He returned to New Zealand and joined the police.

A number of months later he was driving to Tangiwai.

When they set off his colleague, the Commissioner, stated, “take off your helmet. Bruiser tells me you’ve been in hassle for rushing. Get us to Taumarunui as quick as you possibly can,’’ Silk recalls.

Silk drove shortly. It was late at night time and there was nobody else on the highway.

Tiredness and starvation bought the higher of him and close to Taumaranui Silk took a nook too shortly and crashed right into a financial institution.

‘’The Commissioner stated ‘you’re doing job boy. Keep going as quick as you possibly can.’’

Eventually they got here out of the forest to a bridge. There have been automobiles all over the place. His two passengers wandered off. Silk simply stood and stared.

‘’It was like I used to be taking a look at a scene from hell.’’

A determine got here out of the river and up the financial institution, coated in mud. Silk may see he was a Sergeant by the stripes on his arm.

‘’He stated, ‘don’t stand there bloody trying boy. Get down there and save lives’. So, I went down and type of made my means throughout. There have been some cops getting a physique out of a carriage.’’

Silk joined two sailors who had been passengers on the prepare and in one carriage they discovered a girl crushed amongst some metal.

‘’I assumed she was useless. She heard our voices and opened her eyes and checked out us.’’

They managed to get the metal off her then she seemed up at them ‘’and died in our arms. All of a sudden we realised there was a baby beneath her. She’d thrown herself over this baby.’’

They took the little lady to the command publish the place there have been ambulances, troopers and medics from Waiouru Military Camp.

‘’We handed the baby over and all of the sudden realised daybreak was breaking. There have been some native women there, farmers’ wives, they’d come down with tea and scones. So we had one thing to eat and went again and tried to search out extra individuals.’’

At the finish of the day he found his automobile was gone.

Eventually, a farmer stopped and supplied him a mattress for the night time.

‘’This was Christmas Day. I went again to his place, had some warmed up Christmas dinner and slept in the shearer’s quarters. In the morning I put my damp uniform again on and went again for a second day. I spent all day however didn’t discover any extra reside individuals.’’

Silk boarded a prepare to Auckland the place, nonetheless in his muddy, ripped uniform he walked again to the Princess St police station.

‘’I had nightmares about Tangiwai for a lot of, a few years and I nonetheless often have the nightmare. It’s all the time the similar. The solely good factor was discovering that little lady.’’

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