Joseph Moss

Police Constable

Derby Borough Police

Died 13 July 1879, aged 26

While assisting to book in and search two drunken prisoners at Derby Police Lock-Up, one suddenly produced a pistol and fired several shots wounding him in the side of the body from which injuries he died the following day.

His killer, a man aged 23, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death but was later reprieved and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Joseph was a former soldier in the Grenadier Guards and had less than two years police service; he was a single man.

An inscribed gravestone was erected in Nottingham Road Cemetery. In 2002 a plaque was dedicated at the scene and in 2003 the gravestone was renewed.