THE last but one member of the former Burnley Borough Police Force, PC Les Cherry, is retiring.

From the end of the month, the only remaining Borough officer will be the boss of the Pennine Police Division, Chief Supt Mike Griffin.

Les, 54, joined up in 1967 and for the last 14 years has been the Coroner's officer, working on behalf of the East Lancashire Coroner David Smith.

A Burnley man born and bred, Les started work as an apprentice with Rolls-Royce at Barnoldswick. He joked: "I always wanted to join the police but I was too short, flat-footed and short-sighted."

After studying mechanical engineering at Bradford University he was eventually accepted into the police under the Borough's last chief constable James Thompson.

He started police life as a beat officer on foot patrol, in the days when it was accepted that any call would be answered within three minutes by an officer on foot, in a car or on a bike.

After attending a scenes-of-crime course he worked as a warrant officer, scenes-of-crime and assisted the then coroner's officer, Ron Harker.

Along with a colleague, he received a bravery certificate for rescuing a man who was overcome by coal gas, dragging him out of the house and then successfully resuscitating him. Since becoming coroner's officer, Les has had to deal with an average of two deaths a day often in tragic and gruesome circumstances.

He said: "I was already an experienced police officer when I went into this job. I have seen some horrible sights and had to deal with the deaths of young children. "It is not that which has affected me most, but more dealing with and helping their families. There are some very tragic people, sometimes you see the same family a number of times."

A big change has been the the increase in the number of killings. For the first time, he has had more homicide cases pending than road traffic accidents.

Les is married to Hilda, a nurse. He lives in Fence and intends spending his retirement catching up with his hobbies of photography and Roman history, brushing up on his German and visiting that country.

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