X Detective Superintendent Ronald ReidDear Margaret, (if I may be so bold)Thank you ever so much for contacting the Museumconcerning your father, to put it mildly andgreedily, we will take anything you would like todonate and to explain the reasons why. The Museumonly holds the basic information concerning yourfather, i.e. when he joined and when he retired topension, we don't even have his date and place ofbirth, this is because records between 1857 and1913 are very detailed, post this date successivecivilian administrations within CheshireConstabulary have, when an officer left or retiredonly retained the minimal amount of information toadminister their pension, however thankfully thishas now been stopped.I would normally say that the Museum would be thebest place to receive the documents however it iscurrently closed for major building works to allowchildren and a new access for the disabled. Would it be at all possible either to downloadthem to a CD or Photocopy them and send them to myhome address which is 20 Llandovery Close,Winsford, Cheshire, CW7 1NA,? of course anyexpenditure incurred on your part we will gladlyrefund. I do appreciate that this may be animposition but I feel that anything sent to theMuseum at this moment may just inadvertently goadrift and I would hate this to happen.I look forward to hearing from you, and once againthank you for contacting.Sincere best wishes Jim.Jim Talbot. Trustee and ResearcherMuseum of Policing in Cheshire.THE LIFE OF RONALD REID, MY FATHER.Ronald was born on the 8th December 1915 toFrederick and Gertrude Reid. He was their secondchild, the first a daughter, Marjorie was born theyear before. They were living in Huncoat,Accrington. Initially in Highergate and then at444 Burnley Road (this was originally numbered144).He received an elementary education until he was14 years old, leaving school on the 31st December1929 having been given a certificate stating thatthe Senior School Attendance Officer had examinedhis birth certificate and that he qualified fortotal exemption from school attendance under theEducation Acts. Although he was due to leaveschool at the Christmas he stayed on until Mach ashe hadn't found suitable employment. He commencedemployment as a labourer in a calico printingworks where he remained until he was 17 years ofage.After school he attended night classes and wastaught shorthand writing and general commercesubjects. He also joined the Territorial Army on28th April 1931; he was a Lance Corporal 3384338,415 East Lancashire Regiment, leaving after 1 yearand 339 days to join the regular army, ColdstreamGuards. This was on 2nd April 1933.His discharge paper describes him as being born in1913 (he had told us about lying about his age toget in). His height was 5ft 101/2 inches, freshcomplexion, blue eyes; he had a small scar on thecentre of his forehead and one on his left thumb.He served in this Regiment for four years from1933- 1937 in the rank of Guardsman as the QuarterMaster, leaving in April 1937 when he had beenaccepted in the Cheshire Police Force as aConstable.On the 6th December 1933 he received the ArmyEducation Certificate in English, Army and Empire,Map reading, and Mathematics or Language. GainingDistinction in these subjects.In his application form to Join CheshireConstabulary his height has gone up to 6 feet 3/4inch. He initially went for an interview at eitherCannon Row or Rochester Row Police Station, as hewas stationed in Wellington Barracks, London withthe Guards.He was sworn in as a member of the CheshireConstabulary on 12th April 1937 and after passingout at his initial training was posted to CreweDivision on foot patrol in July 1937.After completing his probationary period in April1939 he was posted to Headquarters Office ofC.I.D. at Chester, where he was employed in aclerical capacity, until he was recalled to servewith the colours on 20th November 1939. He was toreport to Chelsea Barracks by 2nd December.Prior to joining he attended a General OrdersParade at Chester Castle where the Chief ConstableBeck and Assistant Chief Constable Dodd inspectedall that had been recalled to active service.He served with the Coldstream Guards only untilJune 1940 when, on account of the defeat atDunkirk and impending invasion of this country,the Army Council decided to form a SpecialIntelligence Unit, covering the MetropolitanPolice District. To become part of the SecurityService on counter espionage work. He remainedwith the Security Service throughout the war,being a member of a section employed to dodetective work for any other section of theDepartment. Covering such fields as Commercialintelligence, Censorship, and observation onpeople under notice.There were two examples I am aware of that he wasinvolved with.The first was in November 1940 and relates to aSwedish man name Caroli whose code name was SummerHe was a Swede who spied for Germany and wasparachuted into England in September 1939.Unfortunately for him he was knocked out by hisradio equipment that he had strapped to him, thiswas done against the advice of his commanders.When he woke he crawled into a ditch and fellasleep, to be found by a farm worker.Dad's involvement in this case was in monitoringCaroli at Hinxton and going out on a bike doingreconnaissance work that was to be fed to theGermans; this had to be genuine information sothat the Germans didn't get suspiciousThe next incident relates to a man called OswaldJob. Dad was employed on a surveillance of Job andfollowed him around London for a day. Hesubsequently had to give an account of his daywhen Job was tried at the Old Bailey. He was notaware until later of the outcome of the case. Jobbeing executed..Dad married 5th June 1943, Joyce Gertrude Barnes,my mother, she was working at the WestminsterLibrary in London so it was in this area that theyobviously met.They were living in West By fleet by the timetheir first daughter, Deborah, was born on 19thDecember 1944.In August 1945 he was demobilized and rejoined theCheshire Constabulary.On his return to Cheshire he was employed as aconstable in the Headquarters of the CID atChester, where he remained until October 1947. Hewas then posted to outside detective duties inAltrincham Division, where he remained until June1954 having been promoted to Sergeant in January1951. He remained throughout on detective duties.It was while he was still in Chester that I wasborn, in Hoole, on 11th December 1946.The family lived at 46 Greenbank Road Hoole.Andrew his son was born 20th May 1949.It was in this same year that he put anapplication in to join the Surrey Police force.This application was unsuccessful and he continuedin the Cheshire Constabulary in Altrincham livingat2 Ash Grove, Timperley for 7 years until in June1954, they moved to Roslyn Grove Altrincham. Wherehis wife and 3 children lived for 6 months whilehe attended the Police College on a course A/54/2.Being promoted to Inspector in December 1954 hewas subsequently posted to Macclesfield in commandof the Urban Sub-division. Living at 35Springfield Road, Broken Cross.He remained here until February 1958 when he wasposted to Nantwich as Inspector of thatSub-division.Housed with his family in part of the policestation at Nantwich for 4 months and then given ahouse in Mount Drive.In November 1959, he left Nantwich and wasappointed Divisional Detective Inspector for theChester City division. He remained in thatposition Until April 1961. Living at 170 ChesterRoad Huntington for 5 years.This was when Joy his wife left him.He was subsequently posted to a uniformedInspector position in Chester. He felt that thiswas a demotion directly caused by his wife leavinghim. More probably arranged so that he could haveregular hours to assist in looking after his 3children.He continued in this post until April 1964 when hewas promoted to Chief Inspector and appointed asAssistant to the Divisional Superintendent ofChester City Division.Moving house again to 21 Wealstone Lane Upton byChester. This is where he met neighbours Peter andMargaret Measures and their 3 children.Eventually rising to the rank of DetectiveSuperintendent by the time of his retirement on30th November 1967.His retirement was advanced by virtue of himhaving had a heart attack the previous yearThroughout his career his had been commended onmany occasions by the Chief Constable for goodpolice work. As a uniform Inspector he has beendetailed to carry out investigations into largescale frauds. He has also received individualcommendations from the Judge of Assize at Chesterand from the Director of Public Prosecutions forthe way criminal cases under his direction havebeen investigated.Upon his retirement and as a consequence of hisheart attack, not owning his own home prompted theMeasure's to suggest he moved in with them, theywere now living in Upton Park. It was organisedfor an extension to be built on their house thatwould be his accommodation, and this is where helived for the rest of his life until his death onFebruary 10th 1984.Post ScriptOn 2nd February 1995 an obituary was in the DailyTelegraph for Ronald REED who had died aged 78,who was a key figure in the Secret Service duringand after the Second World War.A great deal of the entry mirrored exactly what myfather Ronald REID had told us of his involvement.It seemed a great coincidence that there were 2Ronald's on the same case and my father had nevermentioned this. Although in the book by Nigel Westa Ronald REID was mentioned as the radio operator.Dad had always put it down to Nigel West havinggot it wrong. But the other Ronald REED wasactually a radio operator!I took the obituary down to Una Fetterlein to askher opinion as she had known my father during thewar and she said: Yes there were definitely 2Ronald's as she had courted the other one for awhile!!Una and Paul Fetterlein are connected to thefamily, as lifelong friends. Una nee Hanks were aschool friend of my mother Joy. She met andmarried Paul, a White Russian, who had escapedfrom Russian as a boy with his mother. His fatherhad escaped separately by going out into the woodscollecting mushrooms and just continuing to walkuntil he crossed the border into Germany.Paul and his brother Ernst, who was a RussianCryptographer, were born in St Petersburg the sonsKarl Fedorovich Fetterlein, a German-languagetutor and Olga Fetterlein, nee Meier who was ofJewish descent.Ernst fled to Western Europe at the time of theRussian Revolution 1917 and was recruited in 1918by the British as a code breaker. He again workedon code breaking in WW2 at Bletchley Park. He diedin 1944Paul was born in 1907 and escaped with his mother,as he was in poor health he was allowed to go toBritain for treatment. He eventually followed hisbrother into the same work at Bletchley Park andeventually spending the rest of his working lifeat GCHQ in Cheltenham. He married Una in 1945,having been Nationalized and Naturalized in 1932.They had 2 children Julian and Anne. Anne marrieda Persian and has 1 child.Paul died in 2002 having been pre-deceased by Unain 1999.Una and Paul were very supportive to my father andthe children at the time of Joy leaving andremained so for the rest of their lives.Note: my father was asked, periodically by Paulfor a reference, Dad was unable to give onebecause of his Police Job. But always wrote backto say he how long he had know Paul as a personalfriend but was sorry not to be able to give areference. Thereby indirectly giving one!