Arnold King – Retired Asst. Superintendent of Police

A NOTABLE resident of Rose Hall Town is 75-year-old Arnold King. He served the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for 33 years and is the third, highest- ranking officer to come from the town. The other two are retired Assistant Commissioner, Steve Merai, and Acting Police Commissioner, David Ramnarine.

King who was born on June 13, 1940, attended the Rose Hall Primary School and then the Corentyne High School. His first job out of high school was with Sir William Halcrow and Company at Black Bush Polder as a Lab Technician, where he did mostly soil and density testing on concrete and different materials for the construction field.
After departing the company, King remembers the day he was sitting with a group of friends who were job hunting and they encouraged him to join the Guyana Police Force, as they were going to send in their applications and right there he decided to send in an application as well. Of the six friends, King was the only one who got invited to start training.

He joined the GPF on September 1, 1962 as a Constable and left as an Assistant. Superintendent. While in the Force he also served as the Chairman of the Police Association and during that period he was able to achieve a great deal, such as an increase in allowances. King was also benefitted from training in several work-related areas among them a Prosecutor’s Course.

Speaking with the Pepperpot Magazine, he reminisced that one of the most successful and memorable moments in the Force was saving the life of a friend and colleague.
He vividly recalled a day that he was assigned duty at the Guyana Prison Service, in the vicinity of Durban Street, when he received a message that a close friend was attacked by someone and that the perpetrator had him in a choke-hold in a trench on Durban and Louisa Row.

“So I had to run go there. When I reach I see this chap got the police down in the trench with his head under the water, so I didn’t hesitate. I jumped in with my baton in hand and start to lash him to let go of the police but he still held on, so I continued trying to get him to let go. Eventually I got between and was able to get him to loose off in time to save my colleague,” he said.

At 75 years old, King does not let age keep him down as he currently engages in farming and is also the chairman of the Rose Hall Town Farmers Association. He plants ground provisions and cash crops.

Like many others, he too echoed that one of the main challenges faced in Rose Hall is the lack of job opportunities for youths. As such, he expressed worry for the young generation in Rose Hall.

“I had to leave Rose Hall to go to Georgetown because at that time it wasn’t easy for me to get a work in Rose Hall Town and after all these years I would expect things to change. As a youngster coming up, that was one of my main concerns because I grew up from a poor family. My Father was employed at the estate and my mother was a housewife. King who served as a Counsellor on the Interim Management Committee for several years before it was dissolved in 2015. The town needs a lot more investments where youths can be gainfully employed,” he explained.