Before I retired I worked as a police officer on the river. The Thames was my beat and during my time policing the river I dealt with and investigated many deaths that occurred in the river. 

  I was recently contacted by a bereaved mother whose son lost his life in the Thames some five years earlier. Such was the emotional trauma that she and her family had suffered that it was only after all that time had passed that she felt able to think and talk about her loss again. She asked me if it was possible to view any official reports or documents. I told her that I could assist her in gaining access to the reports if that is what she really wanted but that simply being able to view such documents was unlikely to give her any emotional closure. 

  Nor would it give her any further information over and above what she had already heard at her son’s inquest. As we exchanged emails on this matter one thing that she said really stood out. ”There must be lots of people like me trying to come to terms with the fact that a loved one has lost their life in the river and there is simply nowhere we can go to remember them. No memorial - Nothing”

  And so an idea was born.The aim of the “Thames Well Wishing Memorial” fund is quite simply to place a memorial somewhere in Central London which is dedicated to EVERYONE who has died in the River Thames regardless of how that death occurred. The idea is for that memorial to act as a focal point for anybody who feels the need to remember or commemorate a lost life that was dear to them.