'Film will future-proof legacy of wartime PC'

Documentary makers are hoping their new film on a York police officer killed during World War Two will help historians trace his living family members.

PC Robert Smith was part of the London and North Eastern Railway Police Force based at York Station, which was hit on 29 April 1942 during the Baedeker Raids, a series of German air raids.

Smith, 64, was killed while on duty that night but little was known of his story, said Mick Child, who directed and produced the film PC Robert Smith - The Final Beat.

"I felt there'd been a slight injustice that somebody could live their life and be killed in war, but be forgotten about," he said.

York was one of four cathedral cities bombed after the Luftwaffe, angered by RAF attacks on the German city of Lubeck a month earlier, used a Baedeker guidebook to select historic targets in England.

Advance warning had been given of an imminent attack and as the late running 22:15 rail service from London King's Cross to Edinburgh pulled into York Station, all 800 passengers were evacuated just as the first bomb fell.

However, more bombs were dropped on the station buildings and debris from the roof soon caught fire.

Smith was killed alongside his colleague, station foreman William Milner, who was awarded the King's commendation for gallantry.

Child, 60, said he felt a personal connection to the story.

"I worked for the railway for 33 years. There really is something called the railway family," he said.

"It doesn't matter there, you're a train driver, an engineer as I was or work on the tools as I have done, you always feel part of this railway family. That never stops."

He created the film as part of a Media Production masters course at York St John University, aided by fellow students, historians and local heritage groups.

A shortage of affordable archive material from the 1940s led the production team to recreate sequences from Smith's life, including his wedding and the funeral of one of his daughters.

Scenes depicting 1940s York were also shot at Eden Camp Modern History Museum and the Derwent Valley Light Railway.

The film is largely based on research carried out by historian John Shaw, chairman of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society.

He was part of a group which started investigating World War Two air raids on York in 2018.

"It was clear that the 11 air raids - there's so much information yet to be out there, yet to be publicised," he said.

The group uncovered Smith's story during their research, and their findings lined up with those of the British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG).

The BTPHG laid a simple cross at Smith's burial site in 2017 but it was replaced by a new headstone in 2024, which is featured in the film.

BTPHG chair and secretary Bill Rogerson said the group had known of Smith's existence but "didn't know too much about his heroic acts in the Second World War".

He said the production of the film, to help remember Smith, was "very very important indeed".

"A lot of these guys have been forgotten. The records are just put in a cupboard and forgotten about," he said.

"It's really great that we can bring these people to the fore, for the whole world to know that the Railway Police were part of the history during the Second World War and they made a valuable contribution."

Shaw said Smith's legacy had been "future-proofed" thanks to the headstone and a new plaque at York Railway Station.

"When relatives do turn up, they can go to the station and they can go to the cemetery."

He was continuing to search for Smith's family, having recently discovered that one of his sisters had "married a man called Potter in Harrogate".

"So 100 years ago, if anybody's got a relative called Potter in Harrogate, whose mother was originally a Smith, we might have found your cousin."

He was also searching for members of the Pedder - or Peddar, "depending on who did the transcribing" - family, Smith's wife's maiden name.

Child added that a former neighbour of one of Smith's daughters had contacted him after hearing about the film project.

"That's incredible," he said, adding that he and Shaw looked forward to meeting her for a cup of tea.

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