Alison Armitage grave (13th September 1971 to 5th March 2001)

Driving to the coast for a long weekend I veered off the A64 to head into the countryside near Castle Howard stately home. Pushing through spectacular bucolic scenery kissed by evening sunlight I pulled up at a one-horse village called Appleton-Le-Street. I parked outside the abandoned pub. On a warm Thursday evening why was it closed? I spotted the black charred roof which was testament to a ruinous fire. What a shame. I walked up a dusty lane to the one and only church to find a police officer who had died an awful death aged 29.

WPC Alison Armitage must have grown up nearby as her mum and dad had worked as gardener and housekeeper to part of the Vestey cattle family in Malton. She was on duty in Oldham in Greater Manchester with a male colleague Gary PC Lamont. Both were working undercover. They had located a stolen Vauxhall Vectra in the car park of a derelict pub and had called for a recovery truck to transport it to a police compound. In a flash 19-year-old car thief Thomas Whaley appeared, got in the car and started the engine. Reversing at speed Alison hammering on the back of the car in an attempt to stop him. Her colleague suddenly witnessed Alison fall and get sucked under the back of the car. She was dragged further up the road by the car “rolling and sliding with the car's movements." Alison was crushed under both sets of wheels. She was struck a second time as Whaley drove forward and tried to sped out of the car park. The car came to a stop and Whaley was arrested. Alison was rushed to Royal Oldham Hospital with substantial but died four hours later.

Whaley was sentenced to eight years in prison for the manslaughter of a police officer. The career criminal claimed that he had not seen his victim nor felt her under the wheels of the car. After serving only five years he walked free from Strangeways Prison in October 2006 firing with a volley of foul-mouthed abuse at staff as he left. In May 2019 he was sent to prison again to serve 15 years for assault and robbery at Catcliffe Post Office.

Being a small churchyard Alison's grave was easy to spot. As I walked across the grass I could see a few headstones with flowers on them but somehow just guessed it was this one. Here's the photos. Just 29 - poor kid. I did a salute and left.