THE launch of a new book on Worcester City Police attracted a very special visitor – the great-great-great-grandson of the force’s third chief constable.

David Phillips, Worcester-born but now living in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, travelled back to the city for the debut of author Bob Blandford’s latest book The Spike.

And he brought with him a contemporary watercolour portrait of his ancestor, ex-basket-maker turned watchman, constable and later Superintendent John Phillips.

He was chief of the city force during nine troubled years to 1849 when he died, probably of cholera.

The former lecturer and probation officer said “the timing couldn’t have been better” whose archivist wife is collaborating with him on a planned biography.

But it is not a view shared by ex-journalist and former city council press officer Mr Blandford who said he would have "killed" to have a copy of the painting just six weeks earlier.

“The picture shows him much as I pictured him – probably too gentle and kind-hearted for a tough role like chief of police in a hard-case town like Worcester.”

A week before the launch, Mr Phillips contacted ex-West Mercia Inspector Bob Pooler, keeper of what remains of the force’s archives, and he passed on details of the up-coming book held in the mayor’s parlour at the Guildhall.

Mr Phillips said: "We had a few details of John’s life, but the book fills in a lot of gaps – 38 pages on his time as chief.

"The question still remains - what made an apparently successful basket maker who’d married his boss’s daughter and was living and working in Broad Street give it all up to become a policeman?”

According to Mr Blandford’s research, John Phillips was one of the first intake of 15 constables sworn in under the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act.

He was PC4 and was later appointed Sergeant under the second police chief, James Douglas.

The first, tough ex-Metropolitan Police sergeant Henry Sharpe had been beaten-up in the Cock Inn in Tybridge Street after 141 days in Worcester, and never recovered.

After the launch, Mr Blandford was able to show the visitors two key sites in John Phillips’ tale – the location of the original Police station-house and his final resting place.

Both are now car parks, the former the north-western corner of Cornmarket, the latter the city’s original cemetery, now Tallow Hill car park.

The Spike – Worcester City Police: the lives, the crimes and the violent times 1833-1900 – is available at the Tourist Information Centre, Waterstones, the Hive, the City Museum, Tudor House Museum, the Commandery and several newsagents.

Anyone who has already bought a copy can pick up a free bookmark containing the extra information from TIC with their receipt.

Signed copies are also available direct from the author at bob@the-whole-picture-publishing-company.co.uk.