Officers from Durham Constabulary will complete a 260-mile bike ride to raise money and awareness for their heroic fallen colleagues today. The Northern Echo looks back on the Coxhoe murder of an officer that sent shockwaves through the village.

PC William Shiell was shot dead on March 1, 1940, when responding to reports of a burglary.

Officers from Durham Constabulary, including Assistant Chief Constable Tonya Antonis, Inspector Ed Turner, and Sergeant Pete Tate, are paying their respects to Shiell, and other fallen officers, with a four-day, 260-mile bike ride.

The cyclists left Durham Police HQ in the city on Thursday (July 27), and cycled first to Coxhoe, to pay tribute to Durham officer, PC Shiell. From Coxhoe, the officers are travelling to the National Arboretum, in Staffordshire, where a special remembrance service for those who lost their lives will take place today (Sunday, July 30).

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The Northern Echo: Killers Ostler and Appleby Killers Ostler and Appleby (Image: The Northern Echo)

PC Shiell was killed when he was only 29-years-old. The young officer left behind a young widow and a three-year-old daughter.

The officer had been called to a Co-op shop by a Coxhoe miner Jeffrey Smith, who believed that he’d seen a murder. When he arrived at the shop, two men crashed out of the shop’s front window, and PC Shiell proceeded to give chase.

In a field on the village outskirts, Shiell heard one of the men cry: “All right, let him have it. He’s all alone.”

Only seconds later, a shot rang out and PC Shiell collapsed, clutching his stomach. Though physicians at Durham County Hospital tried to revive him with water and a cigarette, the superintendent was told that his officer would die.

Even though PC Shiell had been informed that he only had hours to live, he still managed to give a statement to a magistrate that was admissible in court.

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Following his death, police stations across the region were alerted to the murderers on the loose, with roadblock set up and a large reward offered in the hunt for his killer.

On the day of his funeral, all the residents of Coxhoe stopped work, and around 200 of his fellow officers attended the service.

His killers, William Appleby, and Vincent Ostler, both from Bradford, were convicted of the murder and sentenced to death by hanging on July 10, 1940.