'I'm dying missus': Last words of Wolverhampton police hero murdered in the line of duty 60 years ago today
Brian Archer never forgot his dying colleague's last words.
Lying in the door of a Wolverhampton off-licence, with fatal stab wounds, Detective Sergeant Jim Stanford was determined his killer would be brought to justice.
"Jim had made what in legal terms is called a dying declaration, saying that he knew he was dying and he named his killer," recalled Mr Archer, who, at the time of DS Stanford's murder 60 years ago today, was a fellow sergeant serving with the Wolverhampton Borough Police force.
"That means that evidence can be given without him being present, and it is quite an unusual thing."
The guilt for Mr Archer was great. DS Stanford had only returned from his holidays two days earlier, and Mr Archer, then aged 33, had been covering his shifts.
"When he came back two days earlier I had said to him after our handover ‘by the way, when you see young Wardley you can nick him because he has gone on the run again'."
David Henry Wardley, 19, was well-known to police, and had recently absconded from Feltham borstal.
"He had attacked a police officer some years before," said Mr Archer. "He was a nasty piece of work."
In the police control room at Dunstall Road, a red light flashed to indicate an incoming 999 call. The officer on duty picked up the phone and a female caller urged: "Get an ambulance quickly”.
"She sounded quite hysterical," said the officer in the control room. "I could hear in the background a man's voice saying 'I’m dying missus', and he mentioned a man's name.
