Saturday, July 31, was a very special day in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brind, of 11 Hillcrest Lane, Scaynes Hill, for it was the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, which took place at St. Nicholas Church, Plumstead, near Woolwich, in Kent.

Mr Brind, aged 75, and his 73-year-old wife, Bessie, are both Londoners. After their wedding they lived for a short time at Plumstead, but the greater part of their married life has been spent at nearby Abbey Wood. By profession, Mr. Brind was a production engineer and from 1951 until his retirement in 1955 he was engaged in London on an assignment for the Pakistani Government.

Two years ago, Mr and Mrs. Brind moved to Scaynes Hill. Their son and daughter-in-law live in Penland Road, Haywards Heath, while their daughter and her husband, with whom they spent their anniversary weekend, are living at Bexley, in Kent. There are four grandchildren.

To make their anniversary complete, the couple received a surprise gift-- a wedding cake from the Brighton Equitable Co-operative Society. Mrs Brind became a member of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1917 , and on moving to Scaynes Hill she transferred her membership to the Brighton Society.

Mid Sussex Times, 1965.

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The longest serving drugs squad detective in Sussex is bowing out with a message to parents:" Please educate your children about drugs before it is too late"

Det Con Yaki Brind, pictured above, is retiring after 32 years with the force and reckons he has personally known more than 150 people die from drugs in his time with the Shoreham-based Sussex Drugs Squad.

Yaki, a nickname he acquired when he was a teenage police cadet, said: "You look at their ages, most were between 16 and 30, and you think 'What a waste of life'. It is so sad.

"And there is a great misconception that only people at the lower end of the social scale fall victim. The truth is, it affects all walks of life and the problem is getting worse."

Education , he said, was essential to steer as many youngsters away from drugs as possible. "Give them the correct information. Youngsters already know a lot and we should treat them as adults and give them the true picture.

"For instance, it is no good saying heroin is all bad. Yes, it is a killer, but it does have its uses in relieving pain for terminally-ill patients.

"We have to be frank and honest and in this way, hopefully, youngsters will say 'No' to drugs. We have successfully driven home the message that drink-driving is socially unacceptable and, hopefully, we can do the same with drugs."

Det Con Brind once wore long hair and beads and flowers in his hunt for pushers. He has felt hundreds of collars in him time but, he said, his main aim as a policeman was to save lives.

He said "All heroin users I have known started on softer drugs. I hope someone I nicked years ago for cannabis may still be walking this planet because he did not like being put in a cell.

That thought, the saving of a life, has made this job very worthwhile."

He said drugs squad officers genuinely feel sorry for addicts.

The popular image of a squad officer, someone who enjoys kicking down doors and busting abusers, is far from reality.

He said: "We are all human and have feelings like anyone else. Our job, first and foremost, is to preserve life."

Det Con Brind has received (number missing) commendations since joining the old West Sussex constabulary in 1964. The most notable was for his part in the arrest of two Mafia drug pushers from Peru at Worthing Hotel in 1979, and the recovery of two kilos of cocaine.

The bust led to the arrest of nine people in Holland, 42 in Italy and the recovery of 32 kilos of cocaine in Peru, a haul worth millions of pounds.

Sussex born and bred, Det Con Brind served in Brighton, Bognor, Hove and Shoreham, and may be the last officer to be leaving the drugs squad.

Reorganisation planned for next year may means the squad being merged to form a Serious Crime Unit.

Sussex Argus, September 27, 1996.

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