Retired Officers Association

The MDPROA was formed as the result of a few retired officers, still interested in the force that they were a part of for so much of their life, attending Passing Out Parades at PTS Medmenham, where a small corner of the arena was set aside and a tent was earmarked for them to offer protection. Research has failed to establish exactly where the inspiration came from or who came up with the idea, but the first mention of the forming of the association was in the form of a memo sent out by Jack Aspinal about 1987, asking all Group Officers as they were then called, to find out what support there would be for such an association, the result is that, at a recruits parade at Medmenham the inaugural meeting of the MDPROA was held on the third year they formed themselves into an organised group, elected a committee and this was the official start of the Ministry of Defence Police Retired Officers Association.

The aim of the MDPROA has never changed and that is to form an association to promote and sustain friendship amongst the retired members of The Ministry of Defence Police and offer help or advice where it is needed.

Membership of the Defence Police Retired Officers Association does not stop there we the members of the ROA still regard the MDP as our Force and the DPF as our Federation we are still regarded as part of the force by the Chief Constable and the Defence Police Federation by the membership and remember the force magazine Talk Through is our magazine, The DPF Web Page is our web page use them write to them, keep in touch with old colleagues through them, I am sure you will agree with me that they are very professionally produced means of communication,

Just as we are still part of the force, we are also still part of the Federation, the federation will still come to the aid of any retired federated member by way of legal advice, assistance in other matters, preferential shopping in specific areas, particularly for those of you who travel abroad, you can get extremely good value in the way of a Travel Insurance Scheme this scheme by the way is only available to retired officers who are also members of the ROA

It was decided that like all well formed organisations we should have a patron and who better to ask but one of the main supporters at the outset of the ROA and that was, among others Mr. Jack Aspinal, who at the time was Chief Constable MDP. In March 2000 Mr. Jack Aspinal was appointed Patron of the association with a current membership of over 600.

Peter Parkes
Chairman