VIDEO: Ex-bobby on the beat tells his tale

Bobby on the Beat: Memoirs of a 1960s London Policeman written by Bob Wragg, under the pseudonym Bob Dixon, tells a variety of true tales, from day to day policing of the streets, and the discovery of a young boy hiding in a mortuary, to a drunken neighbour caught in a compromising situation with a chicken.

Bob was persuaded to write under the name ‘Dixon’ by his publishers to tie in with the name of a well-known TV series of the era, Dixon of Dock Green, which followed the activities of a fictional policeman in the EastEnd of London.

Bob, 72, of Chilgrove Close, said: “The bobby on the beat in East End London dealt with everything. The East End in those days was very busy. Where I was in Limehouse, that was China Town and in that area you had the local community - the true cockney’s, there was a big Jewish community, there were Polish people, and black immigrants from the Caribbean had just started to come over. We also had a large amounts of foreign sailors and prostitutes.

“It was always very lively. On a Saturday night it wasn’t uncommon to have 18-20 prisoners in the cells. People used to come from all over London to see what the East End was like.”

For the full story, see the Worthing Herald, Thursday, October 10.