A HASLEMERE policeman, who was the first officer to be killed in active service in Surrey, has been commemorated by the town council.

Inspector William Donaldson was murdered while quelling a town riot in 1855 and an annual ceremony is held at the town hall, where he died, to remember him.

Joining the town mayor and mayoress on Sunday (July 28), was Inspector Donaldson’s great-great-great grandson Henry Pelham, National Police chaplain Canon David Wilbraham and Haslemere’s Sgt Andy Crane.

The mayor described the fateful night of the July 1855 riot and Mr Pelham spoke about the inspector’s family life.