Last beat for PC Bob Brown as country's longest server copper retires from Metropolitan Police in Croydon

Colleagues from across the Metropolitan Police gave constable Robert Brown a surprise guard of honour as he hung up his truncheon to end his 47-year career in the borough of his birth.

PC Brown, who turns 65 on Monday, waved an emotional goodbye to the force following the deaths of his wife and son in the past seven months.

Passers-by stopped to watch as he arrived to applause at a Croydon police station in a 1970 Morris Minor panda car led by two police horses.

The constable, who was born in Albert Road, South Norwood, and grew up in New Addington, looked back on a career he began aged 19 in West Hampstead before serving in Brent, Norbury, Addington, Sutton and finally Croydon in 1999.

PC Brown, known as Bob, said: "I have gone from police whistles, police boxes, teleprinters and truncheons to body armour, batons and CS gas.

"When I first started, without a radio you had to phone every two hours on the box to make sure you're safe and to pick up any work you needed to do."

He added: "I've enjoyed almost all my time in the job and serving the people of Croydon.

"I wanted to help people.

"But my family life has changed dramatically over the last year because of the loss of my wife and son. The time has come. My job has run its course and it's time to go onto something different."

PC Brown's has been involved in some of London's most notorious cases, such as the 1981 Brixton riots and Carlos the Jackal's shooting of Marks and Spencer boss Jospeh Sieff.

He also worked a 24-hour shift during Croydon's riots.

He said: "Because I'm getting on a bit my duty officer didn't want me on the frontline, so I came back to the station and was told to stay here. The van was sitting in the yard, no one driving it, so I took the van out picking up prisoners.

"It was very strange driving around the bricks and bottles and people driving around.

“At Argos, it was like a line of ants, the people coming out of it all carrying television sets."

The darkest day of PC Brown's career fell on February 8, 1994, when he saw a colleague stabbed to death.

Sergeant Derek Robertson was one of four officers responding to a robbery at Addington post office. Stabbed in the heart by one of the robbers, he died despite PC Brown giving first aid.

PC Brown said: "His chest was open up in front of us and the doctors carried out open surgery on his heart. The memory is there all the time."

In his retirement, the constable is to leave his home in Riddlesdown and relocate to near Halifax, in Yorkshire, where his sister lives.

He had planned to move with son Lee, 35, until his death from pneumonia on January 6.

PC Brown's wife, Renee, died of heart condition complications on June 18 last year, three days before their 39th wedding anniversary.

He said: "I'm still shocked. But I've lived a good family life. We were very close. I'm coming to terms with it."

Speaking at the constable's send-off, Chief Superintendent Andy Tarrant, borough commander, said the Croydon police station would "never be the same again".

He added: "Bob Brown has dedicated 47 years to public service and deserves all the recognition that goes with being the country's longest serving police officer.

"It is only fitting that Bob should complete his career in the area that he was born in. An operational officer virtually to the end of his career, Bob will be missed by all his friends and colleagues.

"Croydon police station won't be the same without Bob working here."