VIDEO: Families watch as police memorial is unveiled

A poignant’s minute of silence at the ceremony was punctuated with names of the officers killed on duty.

Among those was PC Stanley Spooner, who was killed by a German bomb, aged just 28, when he rushed terrified residents into an air raid shelter in Portsmouth.

His son Stan Spooner, now 76, was born 10 days after PC Spooner’s death.

Stan was yesterday his brother Martin, 78, to see the unveiling at Hampshire police’s support and training headquarters in Netley.

‘It’s a reminder of the great sacrifice that people like my father made and that we should recognise it.

‘We should remember it and perhaps we should learn lessons that we can apply ourselves to our own lives.’

Emotion ran high for the family members of the fallen officers as chief constable Olivia Pinkney and Hampshire Police Federation chairman John Apter spoke about the sacrifices made.

Speaking to The News, Mr Apter said: ‘It’s about never forgetting their loved ones or the sacrifice their loved one made protecting the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and they now know that we will never forget them.

‘They’ve got somewhere to come where we’re demonstrating they’ll never be forgotten.’

The memorial was called for by Mr Apter two years ago, following the death of Fareham-based PC Steve Rawson, who died in a motorcycle crash in 2013.

Speaking during the ceremony Mrs Pinkney said: ‘It’s been deliberately placed here so that all of us every day will see it and take a moment to reflect upon those shoulders we stand and those who gave the greatest sacrifice for the communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.’

A separate memorial garden is due to be opened in spring next year.

Prior to the unveiling of the memorial a book was kept at the former headquarters in Winchester listing the names of the dead.