Sgt. Jack William Avery (5 November 1911 – 6 July 1940) was a British

War Reserve Constable ''This should not be confused with a Special Constable, which was a voluntary British police officer, that existed alongside the War Reserve Constable.'' War reserve constable (or WRC, war reserve police constable, WRPC) was a voluntary role wit ...

who was murdered in

Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Pa ...

, having served less than one year with the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

. On 5 July, Sgt. Avery was advised by a member of the public that Frank Stephen Cobbett was acting suspiciously. Avery approached Cobbett, who was lying on the grass and writing on a piece of paper, and took the paper from him. Avery returned the paper to Cobbett, who stabbed the officer in the groin or upper thigh with a carving knife. Avery died the next day. Cobbett, a 42-year-old homeless labourer, was originally sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Atkinson, even though the jury strongly recommended mercy because of his "low mentality." After an appeal, Cobbett served 15 years' penal servitude for

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

instead. In 2007,

Ian Blair Ian Warwick Blair, Baron Blair of Boughton, (born 19 March 1953) is a British retired policeman who held the position of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2005 to 2008 and was the highest-ranking officer within the Metropolitan Pol ...

, then

Metropolitan Police Commissioner The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February. The rank of Commissione ...

, unveiled a memorial to Avery in Hyde Park, close to the place where he was attacked.

References

Deaths by person in London Deaths by stabbing in London Crime in the City of Westminster 1940 murders in the United Kingdom 1940 in London Murder in London July 1940 events 1940s in the City of Westminster 1940s murders in London 1911 births 1940 deaths {{UK-crime-bio-stub

See also

References