Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Wednesday 17 October 1928

Civilians Rewarded.

How a Thurnscoe Constable Was Rescued.

Presentations of watches, the gifts of policemen, were made at the Doncaster West Riding Police Court yesterday to five persons who assisted police-constable when in difficulties at Thurnscoe recently.

The recipients were Ellis Littlewood, miner, of Houghton Road, Thurnscoe; Arthur Denton, tram driver, of Brampton; William farmer, of Clayton ; William Gordon Ritchie, farmer, of Clayton-; and Mrs. Lydia Wood, of Thurnscoe.

The Chairman (Mr. G. E. Cooke Yarborough) said Police-constable Clarke was on duty in Houghton Road, Thurnscoe on 10.40 Sunday, June 24th, when noticed five men drunk and acting in a disorderly manner. He spoke them, but they knocked his helmet off, struck him the head with pint bottle of beer, and inflicted severe wounds.

The constable collapsed, and the three men, Ritchie, Scholey, and Littlewood went to his rescue, and pulled his assailants away. Mrs. Wood tried to blow the constable’s whistle. Tram-driver Denton, seeing that the constable had collapsed, got him away in his tram.

When the case was heard all the men were sentenced to imprisonment. The officer had been off duty-for five weeks the result of his injuries.