Gerry Richardson

Who was Gerry Richardson?

Supt Gerald Irving "Gerry" Richardson, GC, was a police officer in the Lancashire Constabulary and is one of the highest-ranking officers to be murdered in the line of duty in Great Britain. In 1972 he was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Gerry Richardson was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1932 to Irving Richardson and Lilian Pugh and had always aspired to join the police force.

On 23 August 1971, Richardson assisted in a car chase of a gang of five armed robbers who had attacked a jeweller's shop in Blackpool. As the gang split up and attempted to escape on foot, he and PC Carl Walker, who also later won the George Cross, chased one of the raiders, 'Fat' Fred Sewell, down a dead-end alleyway. Sewell shot Walker in the thigh before Richardson tackled the gunman and attempted to persuade him to surrender his weapon. However, Richardson was shot twice in the stomach at point-blank range and died of his injuries later that day at Blackpool's Victoria Hospital.

His posthumous award of the George Cross was cited in the London Gazette of 13 November 1972. His funeral was attended by around 100,000 members of the public; Richardson was buried in Layton Cemetery.