Reginald Thomas Sutherland was a passenger in a police vehicle when a truck veered onto the wrong side of the road in Griffith and collided with the police car on May 20, 1954.

Constable Sutherland sustained massive head injuries and later died. He was 34 years old.

The driver of the truck was charged with manslaughter.

Daughter Lyn Ricardo was 10 the day her mother told her that daddy wasn’t coming home from work.

“She got us all on the bed, the three children, and just explained that Dad didn’t come home from hospital,” Mrs Ricardo said

Mrs Ricardo was the eldest of three children; brother Paul was five while sister Christine was just 17 months old. 

“I went to school here at St Joseph’s and dad used to dink me on the back of his bike in a little seat and I’d stop at the old police station and wait there for school to open,” 

“I have great memories of sitting in front of the great big roaring fire,” Mrs Ricardo said.

Younger sister Christine Smith has spent a lifetime missing her dad as she was too young to remember before he died.

“Definitely the question, ‘Why?’, especially at special times like when you get engaged and you get married and you turn 21 and they’re not around,” Mrs Christine Smith said.

“You think, Wow, I need my Daddy,” 

“To me, he’s just a picture on the wall,” Mrs Smith said.

On National Police Remembrance Day, Constable Sutherland’s daughters welcomed his plaque being unveiled at Wagga Police Station.

Reginald’s widow, Norma, died four years ago.

“We’ve wanted this for a long time, so it’s happened now,” Mrs Smith said.

It was a day of reflection and solemnity as relatives and friends joined police to mark National Police Remembrance Day on Friday.

As a lone bagpiper filled Wagga’s St Michael’s Church with Amazing Grace, the ceremony dedicating fallen police officers gave a stark reminder of the dangers police face every day.

In the past 12 months, three police officers were killed in the line of duty; Senior Constable Brett Andrew Forte in Queensland on May 29; and Constables Glen Jimmy and Alex Kopa in Papua New Guinea on July 22.

The Valedictory roll also marked the passing of serving members of NSW Police in the same period; Sergeant Andrew Small on October 11, 2016, Senior Constable Brian Murphy on November 7, 2016, Ms Linda Lawrie on March 11 and Inspector Darren James Steel on March 22, both this year.

Addressing the service, Wagga Police Superintendent Bob Noble said police work is undeniably dangerous and sometimes it’s described as a contact sport.

“Most police here today working in the ten stations that comprise this command would literally bear visible physical scars occasioned by all manner of injuries sustained while protecting the community,” Superintendent Noble said. 

“Sometimes, of course, those scars are invisible and very hard to see and police are very good at disguising them,” he said. 

Officiating the ceremony, Police Chaplain David Ruthven recalled travelling to America to see his father and having barbecued Texan lunch when his father stopped.

“He went up to a police officer and said it would be an honour if he could pay for his meal,”

“Here I was as an adult, and my father was still teaching me,” Reverend Ruthven said.

The service also held special meaning for the families of the fallen, notably the daughters of Wagga Constable Reginald Sutherland who was killed in a car accident while on duty in Griffith in 1954.

“He was a wonderful man. He was 34 when he died so he was very young,

“He loved fishing and shooting foxes and that sort of thing and he loved his garden,” said daughter Lyn Ricardo, who was 10 when her father died. 

“We lived in West Parade; it had just opened up and was brand new when Dad moved here,” Mrs Ricardo said.

A plaque was later unveiled at Wagga Police Station in memory of Constable Sutherland.

“We’re very pleased to have his recognised. We’re really quite proud of him.”