We received the following notice and the accompanying photograph from his wife, Babs Towner and friend Julia Stanbrook early in 2021:
PETER TOWNER died on 4 November 2020. He was a local policeman in Caversham in the 1970s and 80s. Peter’s parents ran a grocery shop in Westfield Road, which stood him in good stead, as he knew the area and a lot of local people. Due to Multiple Sclerosis Peter spent his later years in a wheelchair, but still enjoyed life, smiling and grateful for everything.
Pete featured on the front page of our November 1982 edition, pictured in uniform and on his bike in the Peppard Road. The article recorded that Pete was born in 1945 in Caversham and attended Caversham Primary school and then Alfred Sutton School. He became a cadet with the Berkshire Constabulary when he was 17, and joined the Reading Police Force in 1967.
He and Babs were married at St Peter’s Church, Caversham in 1966, and their two children grew up here. For many years, Pete was our ‘policeman on the beat’; he knew everyone and everything that was going on around Caversham in those days. For a long time, Pete lived in Tokers Green but latterly moved to Henley where, with the help of Babs, he was always out and about in spite of the wheelchair.
