Detective Constable Maurice 'Dixie' Lee

• Served with Essex County Constabulary from 6 November 1935.
• Died 16 November 1940.

Maurice ‘Dixie’ George Lee was a police detective. Born in 1911, he was the son of Henry and Isabel Lee from Small Shoes, Good Easter. During a time when he was unemployed, Dixie taught himself different languages - something that he later used in his career as a police officer.

Dixie joined the Essex Regiment in 1928 and worked as an army interpreter. In 1935, he left the army early by paying a fee - something soldiers could do at the time if they wanted to end their service before it was finished. He then joined Essex County Constabulary.

As a Police Officer he worked in Grays and then Hatfield Heath. On 21 November 1937 he married Florence Rachel Braine, at St. Andrews Church in Good Easter.

As World War Two approached, Dixie’s skills in German and Dutch were needed at Essex County Constabulary headquarters. He was moved to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), helping with translation work, and making sure foreign nationals living in the UK, didn’t pose a risk during wartime.

On the evening of Saturday 16 November 1940, Detective Constable Dixie Lee was on guard firewatching with Police Constable Alexander Scott. During the Second World War, firewatch duty meant staying on rooftops or high points during air raids to spot and put out fires caused by incendiary bombs, using sand and water, and calling the fire brigade if needed. Police officers sometimes helped as part of civil defence, which worked to keep people safe and reduce harm during air raids and other wartime dangers.

That night, a German bomber returning from a raid on London dropped several bombs over Essex Police Headquarters in Chelmsford.

The blast caused heavy damage to the roof, windows and ceilings at headquarters, even though sandbags helped prevent worse destruction. Sheets of corrugated steel and other debris were thrown across the courtyard, and every window in the building was broken. A clock inside stopped at 7:17 pm, the exact time of the explosion.

A second bomb hit the Chief Constable’s garden, close to the room where Chief Captain Jonathan Peel and his wife were having dinner. They were not seriously hurt, but their house was badly damaged.

Tragically, both DC Lee and PC Scott were fatally injured. PC Alex Scott, just 26, died instantly. Dixie, who was only 29 years old, died later that day at Chelmsford Hospital.

Dixie was laid to rest in the churchyard at St Andrew’s Church in Good Easter, where he had married Florence three years earlier.

When Florence died 45-years later, she was buried with her husband.

Dixie's entry in the book of remembrance reads: 

Maurice George Lee 1911–1940
Essex County Constabulary
A former army interpreter Maurice Lee had been an Essex policeman for only four years when he was posted to Police Headquarters at Springfield. His wartime duties included aliens and translation work.
On the evening of 16th November 1940, with PC Scott he was fire watching when three bombs were dropped on the building by a German aircraft and both officers were killed.

Dixie is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Register in Westminster Abbey.