Police Auxiliary Messengers (PAMS) were operational in the UK during World War 2. Young lads under the age of eighteen with their own bikes were employed by local Police Forces with the primary role of taking messages during and after air raids if telephone communication was not practicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polic...ikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Auxiliary_Messengers
I recall that these were still used in the late 1950's as part of the Civil Defence organisation. Boys with motorcycles as well as those with bicycles were used. In WWI in Whitby Boy Scouts carried out the same duties and one was killed (or was it seriously injured) while carrying a message during a naval bombardment. Difficult to realise now that fifty years ago police in most areas depended on the public phone box, or the whistle, for communication. Mike
Whitby, North Yorkshire: German Bombardment, World War One At Home - BBC A boy scout lost a leg as a result of the attack and received a telegram and a gift from Lord Baden-Powell. The present to cheer him up would be rather unusual for a boy in this day and age; it was a silver cigarette case. TD There were several children killed but none that I can find where Boy Scouts
TD. I have the big book 'Bombardment' about the attack on the N E Coast by the German Fleet but was too lazy, sorry I meant too busy cutting the hedge, to get it out. My father was the local Scout Commissioner for Whitby and the bombardment was part of local folklore. Mike
I have taken time off from cutting the hedge to look in the big book. The raid was the biggest thing to have happened in Whitby since John Paul Jones, US Navy, fired on it in 1814. Three people are officially listed as dying as a result of the bombardment. Several houses suffered damage due to shrapnel. A soldier had the back of his great coat damaged by shrapnel. The Boy Scout was a messenger for the Coast Guard. He was injured in the leg. Complications set in and it was amputated. The Boy Scout messenger who was killed was in Scarborough, which was also attacked. Mike
Thanks Mike - I found it fun to do a bit of sleuthing, especially as I dont have a BIG book or a hedge to trim Well done to you to be out cutting a hedge on a day this hot TD
Although not PAM related I came across this story of Boy Scout Ted Jefferies who ran messages for the very secretive Auxiliary Units (Britain's wartime resistance army) headquartered at Coleshill House near Highworth, . Ted Jefferies-The Highworth Boy Scout With A Secret Regards ...
...and they wore helmets too. Not the best of quality but actually quite rare. A number of different MESSENGER markings can be found.