TWO Bury police officers, both killed in the line of duty, are to be remembered at a special service next month to mark 25 years of policing in Greater Manchester.

Candles will be lit at Manchester Cathedral in memory of the 10 police officers who have been killed since the Greater Manchester Police force was formed on April 1, 1974.

PC John Cameron of Radcliffe died in a motorway accident while Inspector Ray Codling, who served in the Bury Division for more than two years from 1975, was gunned down at the Birch Service Station on the M62 in September, 1989.

PC Cameron, who worked in Bury's traffic unit, died on January 6, 1977, after his patrol car overturned and burst into flames following a collision with a lorry on the fog-bound M66 near Heap Bridge.

The father of two, aged 26, then of Meadowcroft, Radcliffe, died from multiple injuries in Bury General Hospital.

A second police officer, PC Michael Kennedy (25) from Holcombe Brook, was also injured in the crash.

He made a full recovery and is now a Detective Constable at Bury CID.

The two had gone to the M66 to help motorway police cope with the treacherous fog conditions.

Tribute will also be paid to Insp Codling from Rochdale.

He amd his colleague Sergeant James Bowden, who lived in Freckleton Drive, Bury, came under fire during a routine patrol of the M62 filling station.

The duo approached a leather clad motorcyclist who had been behaving suspiciously.

He pulled a pistol from his jacket and shot Insp Codling in the chest.

The biker, Anthony Hughes, then shot him in the face at point black range.

Sgt Bowden, who is married with three children, was shot in the leg but managed to stagger to the petrol station to raise the alarm as Hughes, who lived in Baguley but had been educated at Holly Mount Convent in Tottington, fled on his motorbike. Hughes shot himself a week later when he was cornered by police in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Insp Codling, 49, was a well-known figure in Bury.

He joined Bury in 1975, working for a time in Radcliffe before moving to Rochdale in 1977.

The thanksgiving service to celebrate 25 years of GMP will be held at the cathedral on April 14 and will be attended by more than 900 people.

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