13 Meet the Locals

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 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

Bournemouth. Ted was able to find work as an office manager at a coach company. It was here that he met June who was working as a nurse. They were married in 1950 at St Peters Church in the town. Ted missed the comradeship and life of a police officer. After some discussion with June, he applied to join the Metropolitan Police in London. In 1952 he attended the police training centre at Hendon. After completion of his basic training, he served two years as a probationary constable, in uniform at Tottenham Court Road Police Station. He was on duty at the Coronation on 2nd of June 1953. After his probationary period was over, Ted went on to CID as a detective. After he was fully trained, he was posted to several stations as a divisional detective. He then served on the fraud squad based at New Scotland Yard. Ted was part of a team that investigated extremely complex company frauds. His work took him all over the country in the quest of evidence to help bring the cases to court. In the late 1960s, by now a Detective Sergeant, Ted moved into the world of forensic science. He ran the forensics school at Hendon, training scenes of crime officers for the Metropolitan Police, Constabularies in England and Wales and foreign students from around the world. Ted was an expert lecturer in forensic science. He was highly skill and very respected. When Ted retired from the Metropolitan Police in 1979, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Police Forensics. He and June moved to Barton on Sea in 1980 and immediately became involved in local organisations. They trained to become interviewers for the Citizens Advice Bureau. After five years of giving help, advice and guidance to the people of New Milton, Ted became the manager. He was involved in several tribunal cases where his previous experience in the Police was a great asset. He continued to serve in the Bureau until 1990. Ted also became the chairman of the local RNLI branch. He and his colleagues were involved in local fundraising events for the lifeboat service. He proudly recalls that his team managed to raise £3000 in two hours at Barton on Sea one year. After joining the local branch of the Royal British Legion Ted eventually became the branch president. He was for many years involved in running the November 11th commemoration ceremony. Ted is most proud of helping to set up Neighbourcare in New Milton. This is a voluntary service that helps to arrange transport for local residents who have hospital appointments but are unable to use or cannot afford public transport. The service typically handles 6000 requests a year for help. Ted was elected as the president of the local branch and eventually stood down in 2019. In 2002 Ted published a definitive history of the Palestine Police entitled A Job Well Done. He received a letter of thanks from Her Majesty the Queen for the book. In addition, Ted was for many years the President of the Palestine Police Old Comrades Association and editor of their magazine. In 2009 Ted was named the Citizen of the Year by New Milton Town Council. There is a bench in Mallard Court, Station Road with a plaque to commemorate this. This year is Ted’s 100th birthday. He has had a fascinating life and career in two police forces and has made an outstanding contribution to life in our town. It most certainly is ‘A Job Well Done’.

Ted and June 2005 at the last Palestine Police Old Comrades parade

Ted at the Forensic Science N Ni ic ck k S Sa au un nd de er rs s

Please men on thislab at Hendon magazine when contac ng any of the adver sers 13

V Vu ul ln ne er ra ab bl le e P Pe eo op pl le e

I have mentioned before the vulnerability of some people that we deal with on a day to day basis. I read with horror the story of Daphne Franks in a newspaper last month. She is lobbying Parliament to prevent predatory marriages. Daphne’s mother Joan died in March 2016. 3 days after Joan’s death Daphne and the rest of her family discovered that Joan had secretly married in October 2015 a man 23 years her junior. At the time of Joan’s marriage she was 91 years of age and she was suffering from severe vascular dementia. Daphne said when she found out about the marriage she felt faint and sick. It was almost impossible for her to process the information. So mentally impaired was Joan that she could hardly remember her own name even on a good day. Joan could not remember the name of her husband who she called ‘Laddo’. How could she have given consent to marriage? Regular readers of this column will know that Joan’s marriage cancelled her original will. Situations like Joan’s are on the rise because we have an ageing population and people are marrying later. With her original 2004 will cancelled by the marriage Joan’s new husband was legally entitled to Joan’s half of the house that she lived in, Joan’s £35,000 in savings and all of her personal items. Daphne said the loss of the family keepsakes was the most distressing. Laddo lawfully inherited her grandfather’s letters from World War I and Daphne’s wedding dress which was still in her mother’s house. These personal items, Daphne states, were of no value to anyone but her. Daphne’s instinctive response was that Laddo had broken the law. The courts, however, disagreed. In December 2016 after a 4 day hearing the Judge decided that although it was doubtful Joan had the mental capacity to consent to marry, Laddo remained her legal husband and was therefore entitled to inherit her estate. At the conclusion of the Court hearing Laddo arranged Joan’s funeral and arranged for Joan to be buried in an unmarked grave without inviting any of her family. In November 2018 Daphne’s MP brought the issue before Parliament in a Private Member’s Bill which sought to establish that marriage should no longer revoke a previous will in every case. It was passed unanimously for a second reading, but ran out of parliamentary time. Now with Covid restrictions lifting, Daphne is making a final desperate call for the Bill to be brought back to Parliament. Many academics believe that this is not a moment too soon. On the one hand it is fantastic that, thanks to deregulation of weddings people have a wider choice of wedding venues but this cannot be at the expense of not safeguarding those who are vulnerable. People who are impaired cognitively can be befriended by those with only one thing on their mind. There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK and their average lifespan is 81 years and so there is huge scope for these kind of marriages. To those who have vulnerable older relatives or friends Daphne has one message be careful. Daphne had contacted her mother’s GP, the police and social services whilst her mother was alive about Laddo living in her mother’s home. They all advised that in the absence of any harm there was nothing they could do. Daphne believes that the law has to be changed so that no-one suffers in the way her family have suffered. At Dixon Stewart we are here to help the elderly, the vulnerable their families and their carers. Contact us on enquiry@dixonstewart.com if you have any worries or concerns or call us on 01425 621515 or 01425 279222

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