Sgt. Joseph Blocksidge is one of two on-duty Lethbridge Police Service officers who died 90 years ago. Cst. Joseph Farrell was also killed in the same collision. August 28, 2023. (Photo: Lethbridge Police Service)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Police commemorates 90th anniversary of on-duty officer deaths

Aug 28, 2023 | 4:43 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It was 90 years ago that two members of the Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) were killed while on duty.

Earlier this year, Regimental Sgt. Major (RSM) Shawn Davis and city councillor John Middleton-Hope, who is also a retired chief of the LPS, came across a newspaper article detailing the officers’ deaths while conducting research.

On August 27, 1933, Sgt. Joseph Blocksidge and Cst. Joseph Farrell, were killed in a collision just east of Fort Macleod. They were driving westbound in a Ford car alongside two passengers, both of whom were provincial relief auditors.

The police vehicle went off of the road and hit the end of a wooden box culvert, which swung the car broadside into a telephone pole. Farrell died on impact while Blocksidge died a short time later on scene. The provincial relief auditors were injured but survived the collision.

According to a media release from the LPS, “It was determined the collision was the result of Cst. Farrell falling asleep at the wheel as he had been on duty all night.”

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Blocksidge was born in Greenwich, England and served in India with the Royal Horse Artillery before being hired as a police officer in Canada in 1923. He was promoted to Sgt. in 1928.

Farrell was also born in England and came to Canada in 1910. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1914 as a nurse and became a police officer in 1931.

Both men are buried in the Mountain View Cemetery.

A memorial ceremony was held at the police station on Sunday, August 27, 2023, to acknowledge their deaths. Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh presented Blocksidge’s grandson Brad with an LPS flag.

A plaque will be added to the LPS’ Memorial Wall and plans are underway to install a memorial plaque at the site of the collision near Fort Macleod.

RSM Davis said he has been unable to contact any of Farrell’s living relatives. The police service provided the following explanation of his known family members:

“[Davis] determined that Joseph Farrell and his wife, Nellie, had a son, John Thomas Farrell, who was born in 1917 in Bromley Common, London, England. He went by “Jack.” Jack Farrell married Violet Miller in 1940 in Birmingham, England and resided for a time in Coventry. At some point, the couple came to Canada, and there is a record of Jack Farrell living in Mayook, B.C. near Cranbrook. Jack died in 1970 and Violet in 1984 – both in North Vancouver. Violet’s death certificate is signed by her son, but the signature is illegible. To date, LPS has been unable to identify Jack and Violet Farrell’s son or any other relatives,” reads a media release from the LPS.

Anyone who knows Farrell’s family members is asked to send an email to shawn.davis@lethbridgepolice.ca.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now

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