Remembering PC Denis Hamer
PC Hamer was killed while on duty at the MGP on September 7 1976.
There will be a dedication of memorial to PC Denis Hamer at 11am this Saturday at Union Mills Methodist Chapel.
PC Hamer was killed while on duty at the MGP on September 7 1976.
At the time, officers carried out duties around the course and when a rider lost control and crashed, his bike collided with constable, who was positioned near the Railway Inn at Union Mills.
A statement from the Isle of Man Constabulary said: ‘One of the officers deployed to the course on the 7th September was Constable Denis Hamer and he would have been collected from the police station in Church Street and driven in a van to his point, which was at the junction of Strang Road and the main Douglas to Peel Road in Union Mills.
‘During the race a rider lost control of his machine as he exited the bend at the Railway Inn. He careered across the road and the bike struck the offside kerb, which caused it and the rider to fly through the air at great speed. In a fraction of a second the machine struck Constable Hamer, who was just a yard or two into the Strang Road, killing him instantly. Four people – marshals and a St John Ambulance volunteer – suffered injuries. The rider was very badly hurt.
‘The efforts of Denis’s family, and several others, have led to the creation of a lasting memorial to him, which will be unveiled at a service in Union Mills Methodist chapel by His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Lorimer, at 11am this Saturday. It is so fitting that the memorial is in the garden of the chapel, a few feet from where Denis was killed and to where he was carried in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.’
Member of the public are invited to the service to remember a man who served not only our island, but another Lancashire Police and the RAF. He had served on the island for just a year before his tragic death and was survived by his wife Rosemary.
