Edward Horne BEM This month, the subject of ‘Meet the Locals’ is Edward ‘Ted’ Horne BEM who has had a fascinating career as a policeman in Palestine and in the Metropolitan Force. On retiring to New Milton, he became involved in running many local groups for the benefit of the community. He celebrates his 100th birthday on 26th of June this year. Ted was born in 1921 and spent much of his childhood in Eastbourne. He attended the City of London School, which overlooked the Thames. Here he was a member of the Officer Training Corps, which gave him his first taste of military life. As a young man Ted had a great interest in the Middle East and read the most informative books and
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Ted Horne in the Palestine Police To adver se1942 call:
literature on the region. In 1938 with war clouds looming Ted joined the Territorial Army, serving in the 7th City of London Regiment. When his parents moved to Brighton in 1939, he transferred to a Sussex Royal Artillery Battery which was serving in an anti-aircraft role. His unit saw action during the Battle of Britain helping to defend the coastline from hostile air attack. In 1941 Ted volunteered to join the Palestine Police. He did this partly because of his great interest in the Middle East but also with a view to a future, post war career. Of the one hundred candidates who applied Ted was one of the ten selected. He and his colleagues went out to Palestine via a convoy through U Boat infested waters. Two ships in the convoy were lost. He arrived at the police training school at Mount Scopus in January 1942. His training included legislation, weapons handling, language skills and first aid. On completion in May 1942, he was posted to Haifa District. Ted served in most of the countries in the region. He transferred to the C.I.D. and worked in plain clothes in an intelligence gathering role, often spending weeks in the desert with Bedouin Arabs identifying arms smuggling routes and assessing the tribes who supported the
Germany and Vichy French forces. By 1944 Ted was increasingly involved in trying to prevent Jewish terrorism as the Zionist movement gained strength and fought to obtain a separate country. After the end of the Second World War Ted was recalled to the British Army in 1946 and then demobbed. By now his parents had moved to
Ted and June together for
57 years taken in 1949 01425 629841 or e-mail gary@princepublica ons.co.uk
