Arthur Edward Quemby

Died

:

9 January 1948

Age

:

39

Rank

:

Police Constable

Force

:

Metropolitan Police

Cause

:

Road Traffic Collision (RTC)

Duty Status

:

On Duty

Roll of Honour Citation

Killed instantly when he was thrown from his motorcycle after skidding on ice while on patrol in Ickenham, Middlesex.

PC Quemby left Ruislip police station about 1:45am and half-an-hour later, at 2:15am, a police sergeant was informed of an accident on Swakeleys Road, Ickenham, where a man was lying in the road.

Arriving at the scene the sergeant found the victim to be his colleague PC Quemby, who had died after sustaining a severe head injury.

Water had overflown from a blocked ditch on the corner of the south side of Harvil Road and Swakeleys Road, spread across the road for a length of nearly fifty feet and frozen, though the rest of the road remained dry.

Scratches and tyre marks in the ice indicated that Arthur’s motorcycle had skidded at the start of the ice patch and the officer had made a desperate effort to overcome the skid before being thrown from his motorcycle.

Arthur had been educated at Deacons School, where he’d won a reputation as a fine all-round sportsman. Before joining the police, in 1932, he was employed by an auctioneers and estate agent company.

PC Quemby was married and had two daughters, aged nine and six, the younger of whom celebrated her birthday the day before her father’s death.