In my early service I frequently encountered death, nearly always what we called a 'sudden death' and with two exceptions they were senior citizens who died at home. The one exception lingered for a while, a police retiree collapsed in the road and I was told to stay with the body and widow till family arrived a few hours later. In the second case a man in his 50's collapsed at work, we attended as it was thought to be an industrial accident and we then found his wife to tell her the bad news.

Dealing with death then became quite routine. Calm people down, get a relative in, get details for a coroner's report, offer very basic assistance and exit.

Child deaths, especially in road accidents, are known to be bad. Thankfully I never dealt with one.

Never came close to killing anyone and I can now only recall one incident where someone was perceived as wanting to kill the police - in a prolonged vehicle pursuit. That lead to a flashback moment with episodes of my life speeding past and then gone - the "bad guy" being caught minutes later.

Violent deaths in my career were rare, strangely I can recall those colleagues who committed suicide more clearly.

Apart from the routine, "canteen" humour had a part and putting distance between your life at work and life at home. I'm hard pressed to think of a single debriefing after an incident and was only offered counselling after a police suicide - which I was unaware of having just joined his ex-team.

Way back in 1974, when the B'ham Pub Bombings happened, with twenty-five dead and scores injured - when I joined in 1980 it was often referred to. We also knew one officer left under the strain and rejoined ten years later - he was rarely on the streets and was "looked after".

I have asked two ex-RUC veterans for their comments.