A GLOWING tribute to retired Detective Chief Inspector FRED TAYLOR, whose reminiscences appeared on this page recently, has popped up in my mailbag.

It comes from Ray Douglas of Kiln Lane, Eccleston, who writes: "I would regard him as being the best- ever detective in the St Helens force, intelligent, crafty and highly skilled. He was way ahead of anybody else!

Which is praise indeed, from a man qualified to judge. For Ray Douglas was himself a detective during Fred's era.