History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

PC Leonard Crayford was on night patrol on 3 December 1933. He had joined the Met only 16 months earlier and was stationed at the West Hampstead Police Station where he lived as an unmarried constable.  Shortly after 1am he was passing the Marks and Spencer store in Kilburn High Road when he saw a man inside the shop. He contacted the police station and Station Sergeant Mountfield arrived with a large body of men. PC Draper and the Sergeant climbed onto a flat roof at the back of the store and discovered that a window had been broken and the protecting metal bar had been sawn through. Looking through the window they saw several shadowy figures moving around the store.  One man spotted them and raised the alarm and the gang fled. The police caught a man inside the shop, and followed the others who ran into St Mary’s Primary School on the corner of West End Lane where they barricaded themselves into the teachers’ room. The police broke through and arrested the other three men....