AT a memorial service to pay tribute to a brave police officer who was gunned down at Oxenholme Train Station 50 years ago, Gazette reporter Patrick Christys went behind the news to speak to surviving family members and current police officers about the impact that fateful night had.

SHOTS rang out in Kendal and Oxenholme during one of the most terrifying and tragic days in the communities' collective histories.

It culminated in 11 police officers being shot at, two wounded, with one, 36-year-old Constable George Russell, dying on the operating table.

The date, February 10, 1965, lives long in the memory of the family members of those involved, Cumbria Police and local residents alike - it is the day that a crazed, wanted man, John Middleton, went on the rampage with a firearm.

Fifty years on, surviving relatives of Constable Russell as well as local dignitaries gathered in the waiting room at Oxenholme Railway Station, where the shooting took place, to lay wreaths in memory of the fallen husband and father who died trying to protect the people of Cumbria.

Constable Russell was one of two officers tasked with searching for John Middleton at Oxenholme Station, a man who stole a car and drove from Warrington to Kendal undetected before firing on police in Kendal town centre and making off.

Russell was joined by PC Alex Archibald and as both men made their way up the platform they spotted a figure lurking in the waiting room.

Both men went to investigate and as they opened the door, Middleton opened fire.

Archibald and Russell were both shot and left for dead and while Archibald went on to make a recovery, Russell did not pull through.

A huge manhunt involving 200 police officers from four counties descended on South Lakeland and, following the direction of members of the public, they tracked down the armed Middleton to an Old Hutton field.

Middleton was shot in the leg by a marksman before shooting himself in the head but he did not die and was later declared mentally incapable of standing trial by a judge.

At the memorial service, directed by Vicar Martin Dew and Reverend Richard Cook, the Gazette spoke to Russell's son, Stuart, who was just six months old at the time of his father's death, told me about the impact it had on his life.

He said: "I never knew my father because I was six months old when he died but you can't sit and dwell on it. Things could have turned out differently probably but I was brought up by my sister and my mother."

Speaking about Middleton, the man who killed his father, Stuart said: "He's just a man - you can't hold grudges. I think if my dad realised the reality of it he wouldn't have gone in there."

His father's bravery and career left a mark on Stuart.

"I tried to join the police force at 17 but I couldn't get in because of my eyesight so I work on the front desk at Carlisle police force," said the 50-year-old.

For Stuart, despite being too young to remember the time of his father's death, Oxenholme Station will always hold a special resonance with him.

He said: "Just driving up the hill today I see the station and it's a different kind of feeling - would I have known the place if it hadn't happened?"

Malcolm Temple, 79, was a dog handler with Cumbria Police at the time of the incident and he joined the hunt for Middleton, attempting to trace his whereabouts after the shooting.

Commenting on his emotions that night, Mr Temple, who was 29 at the time, said: "I was just a very frightened man, very frightened. I was in the Scots Guards with both of the lads who were shot and it's important to remember them as they were very, very brave."

The current Chief Constable, Jerry Graham, told the Gazette why it was so important to hold a memorial service.

"Cumbria Constabulary is a small force - a family force," he said.

"It's important that we remember our own and even though this happened a long time ago he's still very much one of our own. It was both a black day and a moment of police heroism."

As a mark of how the events of February 10, 1965, touched everyone in the area, current leader of South Lakeland District Council, Peter Thornton, remembers being at school at the time and hearing that a manhunt was taking place.

He said: "I was at the grammar school and they warned us that something was going on. Being children we were very excited at the prospect of guns being banded around and we later heard the gunman had been shot. It's only not, 50 years later, that you come up against the sobering side of it - the fact that it was a tragic day that children lost a father and a wife lost a husband."