31st
August 1972
RESIGNS AS CORONERS OFFICER
After
four years in the post, P.C. Douglas House, has resigned as Coroner’s
Officer for the Pontefract Police Division. He is now in Germany
preparing to take part in the Tall Ships race. P.C. House, aged 42, of
Carleton Crest, Pontefract, boats officer of the Castleford Sea Cadet
Corps, flew from Stanstead on Tuesday. From Hamburg he travelled by
coach to Lubeck, where he boarded the training ship Royalist, an 80-ton
double-masted brig. Royalist sailed to Lubeck from the Baltic after
completing the first leg of the international annual Tall Ships Race
from Cowes. P.C. House is one of the new fresh crewmembers who took
over, with about 20 Sea-Cadets, at Lubeck.
Until
Monday ships involved in the race take part in an inshore regatta and
sports at Lubeck and Travelmunde. Then there is a massive
‘sail-past’ at Kiel, where they join up with the Olympic Games
Yachtsmen. There is no scope for yachting at Munich, so, as in 1936,
Olympic yachting events take place at Kiel. What will ‘joining up’
entail?
P.C.
House was told to expect merrymaking. Every one will be looking over
everyone else’s boat. Then the ships pass through the Kiel Canal and
on September 8th set sail from Heligoland for Dover in the race itself.
Royalty will arrive in Hull on September 16th, after which local sea
cadets will take over for cruises from that port.
P.C.
House, who holds an Admiralty Sailing Charge Certificate as a sailing
instructor member, says "There aren’t many people who can sail
such ships as Royalty, in fact, it is the biggest of its kind in which I
have sailed. It is quite an honour to be chosen as crew." As Boats
Officer of the Castleford Sea Cadet Corps, his big anxiety comes not
from sailing difficulties - he was in the Royal Navy for ten years -but
from lack of funds. For sometime the Corps has owned land off Wheldon
Road, near Lock Lane bridge, and have had plans for a boathouse
approved. Although it has 60 full members, P.C. House says so far they
have not been able to make their boathouse dream a reality.
At
Pontefract Police Station he has taken over the job of Warrant Officer
P.C. Dennis Shaw, aged 29, of Beech Avenue, Pontefract. This post
created last October, mainly involves fines and maintenance enforcement.
P.C. Shaw, who was P.C House’s deputy for nearly two years, says;
"My ambition is to keep up to the high standards set by P.C. House.
He was the tops in his job."
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1972 Index ]
