A Lifetime in Forensic Science and Community Leadership
Terry Watson had always wanted to work in a laboratory and was trying to find a job in a lab It was at the end of the war in 1945 and there were not many jobs available. He eventually was offered a job in the radiology department of an aircraft aluminium castings company. However due to cancellation of government contracts he was made redundant after a week.
Fortunately, he was told that there was a post in the “Birmingham Police Laboratory” it was actually at the West midlands Forensic Science Laboratory part of the Home Office Forensic Science Service. The lab at Birmingham was one of the first to be built and had only been in existence
since just before the war. Terry worked at the laboratory in Birmingham for 30 years, except for two years national service in the Path Lab at Colchester Military Hospital. Terry later transferred to the forensic science lab at Nottingham which was subsequently relocated to a new purpose-built building at Huntingdon. Working in forensic science for over forty years Terry saw a considerable number of
changes in technology, as well as the growth of the forensic science service. When Terry joined in 1945, there was about eight scientists in the lab, and by the time he left there were around fifty.
Murders cases were relatively uncommon in 1945 the death penalty was still in existence. Some of the cases dealt within those early day were quite trivial, but they provided some useful experience.
One particular case was the theft of a used railway sleeper worth five shillings. It had been stolen from a farm using a homemade wheelbarrow. Terry was able to match the tyre on the barrow with tyre tracks leading from the farm to the home of the thief. Working within the forensic department for a long time meant that Terry had been involved in many other interesting cases. One particular gruesome case Terry recalls “A headless body had been found.
The head had been removed using a saw. Sometime later a head was recovered in a nearby canal. He was able to prove the head belonged to the body, by matching the saw marks on the bones together. Another interesting case that Terry worked on was” when a family moved into a house and found a skeleton in a cupboard that was hidden behind the back of a wardrobe. The whole body had decomposed apart from one foot which was still preserved for some reasons unknown. He was able to match the foot with marks on a shoe found in a cupboard used by a missing person connected with the previous occupiers of the house who had moved to Bangladesh.
Terry almost had to visit Bangladesh to give evidence but eventually was not needed. Despite dealing with a lot of macabre crimes and investigations, Terry still has some amusing recollection stories and memories. One particular case had several interesting and amusing features. Terry was asked to assist the British Transport Police in a case involving the theft of a bag of new sixpences in transit from the royal mint to banks in the Lancashire area. As the bags of sixpences were being unloaded it was discovered that there was one bag missing. Nearby there were some railings which had been recently painted with red paint. Some days later a small smear of red paint was noticed on one of the lockers in the staff changing room. The owner of the locker was asked to open it. A search was made and a bag was found at the bottom containing a large number of new sixpences.
The explanation given by the owner was that he had collected them every time he got a new sixpence in his change since the beginning of the year. A detailed microscopic examination of all the coins revealed some very minute blemishes which would have been caused by corresponding blemishes on the die during the die-stamping process in the production of the coin. By comparison of these blemishes, Terry was able to show that the coins in the bag were all produced by seven different dies. Entirely consistent with the bag being the one missing from the consignment, and not from a random collection.
The Mint being proud of their reputation were not happy about blemishes identified on their coins. The suspect was obviously not aware that coins with a new date are not issued at the beginning of the year. This case occurred in 1955 a year when severe snow fall occurred and when the case came to court, it was first time in his life that Terry had been to Blackpool and there were 11inches of snow on the ground. During his time at Birmingham Terry was privileged to meet Rose Heilbron the first female barrister to become a Kings Councillor and subsequently a Judge. During his time in the civil service Terry was secretary of the home office branch of the I.P.C.S. union attending several conferences. He was also on the staff side of the departmental Whitley council.
After his retirement from the civil service Terry became an independent consultant. He was consulted by insurance companies regarding road traffic accidents and as a defence expert, doing this for around 5 years to supplement his pension. Terry was not given any information about the C.S.R.F. prior to his retirement in 1987, and only became aware of the fellowship after picking up a copy of the newsletter for the Leicestershire branch in his local library. Terry contacted the branch chairman and restarted the Coalville retirement group. He contacted local retirees for a meeting and started the group as the founding chairman and is still the chairman of the group to this day Furthermore, he also became the branch secretary and newsletter editor for the Leicestershire, Rutland and the South Lincolnshire area, covering 10 groups that would meet as a branch roughly 1-2 times a year.
Terry also organised an annual holiday for his group. Terry also became the chairman of a local retired people’s fellowship in Coalville, covering those who retired from all types of careers. This fellowship unfortunately recently closed due to lack of sufficient members to make it financially viable. The advice Terry gives regarding retirement is to get involved in groups, mix with people, and become a part of the lives of others. He states how important it is to get involved in these things, to keep loneliness at bay.
Postscript: Sadly, Terry passed away in December 2024 but we have kept his story on the page in recognition of the tremendous contribution he made to the CSRF as Chair of the Coalville & Ashby Group.