{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox police officer |name = Jack Avery |image = |caption = |birth_name = Jack William Avery |birth_date = 5 November 1911<ref>''London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917''</ref> |death_date = 6 July 1940 (aged 28) |badge_number = 890A |birth_place = Bromley, London, England |death_place = St. Mary's Hospital, London, England, U.K. |resting_place = |nickname = |department = Metropolitan Police Service |service = <!-- Country based in --> |service_years = |rank = Sergeant |death_cause = stabbing }}
Sgt. '''Jack William Avery''' (5 November 1911 – 6 July 1940) was a British War Reserve Constable who was murdered in Hyde Park, London, having served less than one year with the Metropolitan Police Service.
On 5 July, Sgt. Avery was advised by a member of the public that Frank Stephen Cobbett was acting suspiciously. Avery approached Cobbett, who was lying on the grass and writing on a piece of paper, and took the paper from him. Avery returned the paper to Cobbett, who stabbed the officer in the groin or upper thigh with a carving knife. Avery died the next day.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Stabbing of Police Officer – Manslaughter Verdict Substituted |work=The Times |page=9 |date=13 August 1940}}</ref>
Cobbett, a 42-year-old homeless labourer, was originally sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Atkinson, even though the jury strongly recommended mercy because of his "low mentality."<ref>{{cite news |title=News in Brief |work=The Times |page=2 |date= 23 July 1940}}</ref> After an appeal, Cobbett served 15 years' penal servitude for manslaughter instead.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6605147.stm|title=Bid to trace police war officer|date=29 April 2007|publisher=BBC News|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=9 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109092004/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6605147.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/jack-william-avery|title=Jack William Avery|website=London Remembers|language=en|access-date=2018-02-26|archive-date=27 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227034516/https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/jack-william-avery|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2007, Ian Blair, then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, unveiled a memorial to Avery in Hyde Park, close to the place where he was attacked.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.polfed.org/p22_23_gone_not_forgotten_0807.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928111557/http://www.polfed.org/p22_23_gone_not_forgotten_0807.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==See also== *List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Avery, Jack William}} Category:Deaths by person in London Category:Deaths by stabbing in London Category:Crime in the City of Westminster Category:1940 murders in the United Kingdom Category:1940 in London Category:Murder in London Category:July 1940 in the United Kingdom Category:1940s in the City of Westminster Category:1940s murders in London Category:1911 births Category:1940 deaths
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