A K.P.M. for Gallantry group of four awarded to Sergeant (later Detective Superintendent)...

A K.P.M. for Gallantry group of four awarded to Sergeant (later Detective Superintendent) R. T. Bailey, Metropolitan Police King’s Police Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, for Gallantry (P. Sgt. R. T. Bailey, Met. Police.); Defence Medal; Coronation 1953; Police L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R. (Ch. Inspr. Ronald T. Bailey) good very fine (4) £800-£1,000 --- K.P.M. (Gallantry) London Gazette 2 January 1939: ‘Ronald Tom Bailey, Sergeant, Metropolitan Police Force’. The recommendation states: ‘On 5th November, 1937, Detective Sergeant Bailey and another officer in plain clothes were on duty at Golden Lane, Finsbury, when they noticed a man loitering, whilst a second man, who was wearing a chauffeur's cap, was a short distance away. The officers decided to keep these men under observation. A few minutes later, the officers saw a young woman, carrying a leather music case and a handbag, turn from Golden Lane into Great Arthur Street, followed by a third man. One of the men under observation walked in front of the young woman and suddenly looked back, whereupon the man behind her put his arm round her neck and, forcing back her head, snatched the music case from her hand. The man in front then seized her handbag and both men ran off, with the officers in pursuit, and jumped into a car, which immediately drove off. The driver was the other man the officers had seen loitering. Sergeant Bailey ran towards the car, signalling to it to stop, but the car was driven straight at him and he had to jump aside. He thereupon mounted the running board of a passing motor van and told the driver to follow the car, while the other officer followed on the running board of a private car. Near the junction of Golden Lane and Old Street, the motor van caught up with the fugitive car and the Sergeant mounted the running board beside the driver and attempted to hold him, through the open window. The car was brought to a standstill, but Sergeant Bailey was unable to hold the driver, who, with the man sitting beside him, got out of the car on the nearside and ran away. The Sergeant, however, seized the third man as he was getting out from the rear of the vehicle. The man punched the Sergeant in the face but, after a violent struggle, he was overpowered with the help of the other officer who had now arrived. When the arrested man was searched at City Road Police Station, a piece of rubber tubing loaded with lead was found in one of his pockets. The music case and handbag containing a sum of £139, which had been drawn from the bank by the young woman just before she was robbed, were found intact in the rear of the car. The man arrested was subsequently sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to 7 years penal servitude.’ Ronald Tom Bailey was born at Ilminster, Somerset, on 5 June 1903, and was a clerk before joining the Metropolitan Police on 22 April 1924. Promoted to Sergeant in May 1931, he transferred to the C.I.D. as a Detective Constable in ‘H’ Division on 12 October 1931, and moved to ‘S’ Division in June 1932. He was promoted to Detective Sergeant in ‘G’ Division, Finsbury, in April 1935. It was with this division that he won the K.P.M. for gallantry in making an arrest. Promoted to Detective Sergeant 1st Class in October 1940; Detective Inspector 2nd Class in October 1947; and Detective Chief Inspector in August 1951, he was awarded his Police Long Service Medal in January 1952, and was promoted Detective Superintendent 2nd Class in September 1953, in which rank he served until retiring on 20 November 1955, aged 52, with exemplary conduct having served 31 years and 6 months. He died on 2 December 1980. Sold with copied record of service and other research.