PC Gavin Carlton

I was out with my camera early this morning - left here just after 7am - to catch the light. I needed pictures of the factories along Torrington Avenue from Wolfe Road to Station Ave. On my return journey noticed this commemorative plaque. Any more details would be useful.

This photo contains the information

Yes, the police constable was shot after he tackled some bank robbers.

Thanks to both.

Pixrobin I think the robbers had raided a bank in Tile Hill Village and the policeman had chased them to where the memorial is. I remember it because I had taken my father to lunch at The Phantom Coach that day. We returned via Cannon Hill Road and Kenilworth Road, there was a lot of police activity at the junction of Kenilwoth Road and The Highway. I think the person who shot the policeman broke into a house in Stoneleigh Avenue where he was arrested. AH

He wasn't arrested, he shot himself (see my earlier link)

Thanks Midland Red I did look at your post but somehow missed the writing, must have been looking at the pictures. I should have remembered him shooting himself because I knew the guy who owned the house. AH

My memory is that the two young lads, who had become obsessed with guns and hard criminals, drove from Wales that very day for a bank raid in Tile Hill village that had not been planned very well, if at all. They weren't familiar with the area; PC Carlton was shot to death; later, a detective was shot through the stomach in his car near the A45/Kenilworth Rd lights, and had to take early retirement as a result; the two fled and took refuge in a house that backed onto the golf course; later, one of the culprits shot himself in the house.

I had the sad experience to have been one of the last people to have seen him alive. I was working at the time at Peugeot Talbot's IT centre on Torrington Avenue. I was on a break in the workers’ restroom when I heard the siren from PC Carlton’s car and looked up to see the robbers’ car closely being chased by them. We had no idea at the time that the Midland Bank in the village had been robbed. Not long after I popped out to lunch with a colleague and we drove down Torrington Avenue to be diverted up Nickson Road as the police had closed the road. We could see the police car crashed up on to the verge but had no idea that the officer’s body was inside Ironically enough, we now live near Stoneleigh Avenue where Fisher broke into a house before killing himself. Cannot believe its been nearly 28 years.