A CANDLE for a Bolton police officer killed on duty will be lit at a special service to mark the 25th anniversary of the Greater Manchester force.

Pc John Egerton is one of eight police officers who have lost their lives on the streets of the county since the formation of GMP in 1974.

A candle in memory of each of them will be lit at the service on April 14 at Manchester Cathedral.

Pc Egerton, aged 20, was stabbed to death trying to arrest a man he caught illegally syphoning petrol in a Farnworth factory yard in March 1982.

A representative from the Bolton division, and officers from the areas where the other victims were last based, will light the candles - each bearing the GMP crest and name of the dead officer. The candles will then be presented to their families.

The service is expected to attract more than 1,000 people and will feature the GMP Band, the Male Voice Choir and the Ladies' Choir.

Also honoured at the service will be Inspector Raymond Codling, shot while making a routine check on a suspect at the Birch service area on the M62, near Bury, in 1989, and Pc John Cameron, who died in an accident as he was responding to an emergency call on the fog-shrouded M66, again near Bury, in 1977.

On display at the cathedral will be two books of remembrance listing the names of police officers, support staff and special constables who have died while working for Greater Manchester Police.

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