Mobile Phones

Before mobile phones, few people even had telephones. The following is a 1967 report from P.C.Smith, our last resident local bobby, living at Huntingdon, Main Road, Lacey Green, at the time of The Cold War click Village Policemen for Lacey Green "Bobbies".

PC Smith did not have a mobile phone, or even a motorbike radio, but he did have an alarm system telling him to set off an air-raid siren warning of a nuclear missile strike.

I was to patrol the area by day, leaving my wife to answer the phone and see callers at my small office.   Fortunately a smart black 350cc Triumph motor cycle went with the job, which beat cycling up those Chiltern Hills. Unfortunately it was not equipped with a radio.    My only means of communication was by telephone.  This was achieved by a system whereby the bobby would stand next to a public telephone box at hourly prearranged times so he could be contacted if required.

My little office contained a desk, filing cabinet, telephone, typewriter, my own personal WW3 early warning system and a large box containing an air raid siren. This was the cold war 1960’s and our nearest neighbour was Strike Command Headquarters, the Soviet Union’s number one nuclear target.  I did a test run with the siren; it took 45 minutes to drag it out into my front garden, read the instructions and assemble it. ---41 MINUTES TOO LATE !!! The estimated time of arrival of a nuclear missile strike was 4 minutes; this left me 41 minutes short of warning the good folk of Lacey Green of a very loud bang.