Joseph Stewart Drake

Died

11 August 1967

Age

Rank

Police Constable

Force

Stirling & Clackmannan Constabulary

Cause

Homicide - Vehicle

Duty Status

On Duty

Roll of Honour Citation

Killed when a stolen lorry being pursued by other officers intentionally struck his car at Dennyloanhead as he tried to intercept it.

Roll of Honour Citation

Killed when a stolen lorry being pursued by other officers intentionally struck his car at Dennyloanhead as he tried to intercept it.

Circumstances

Assisting colleagues who were pursuing a stolen lorry he and his partner drove from Falkirk to intercept the fleeing driver of the lorry. Parking their patrol car at Dennyloanhead corner they alighted from the vehicle. The lorry hit the patrol car, the subsequent crash killed Constable Drake.

Constable Joseph Drake was killed and another Constable escaped with severe shock, when a stolen lorry being pursued by colleagues crashed into the road block they had established on the roadway between Bonnybridge and Dennyloanhead.

Constable Drake, who was stationed at Falkirk, had only returned there the previous year after six years at Drymen. He joined the police in 1953, serving first at Falkirk, and for spells in Stirling, Causewayhead and Drymen.

Chief Constable Gray said,

“It is part of a policeman’s job that he may be called upon to risk his life and members of the police force accept this. But it makes it no easier to bear when a tragedy like this happens.”

The funeral of Constable Drake took place to Camelon Cemetery after a service at Bainsford Parish Churel. Almost 500 officers and other mourners attended.

He was survived by his wife, three daughters and son.