Incredible story of unarmed policemen who tackled gunman after he shot three people dead in Yorkshire pub during New Year's Day singalong in 1960

The grandson of a hero policeman who disarmed a gunman in an outside toilet after a murder spree in a Yorkshire pub has called for more recognition of his bravery that night.

Punters were celebrating the New Year with a singalong around the piano to see in 1960 at The East House pub on Spital Hill in Sheffield when Somalian labourer Mohamed Ismail walked in, refused to join in and then shot three men dead, leaving a fourth disabled.

Steelworker Michael MacFarlane, soldier on leave Thomas Owen, who were both in their 20s, and Fred Morris, 30, all died, while Michael’s brother Donald required lifesaving brain surgery and never walked again.

The two police constables sent to respond – Gilbert Robertson and Denis Hastings – were both unarmed, but managed to wrestle the loaded revolver from Ismail after breaking into the toilet in a yard he had barricaded himself in.

World War Two veteran PC Gilbert Robertson and a colleague were unarmed when they overpowered the gunman in a toilet

The smokeroom was crowded with revellers at the time and many initially thought the shooting was a prank. The pub had a special late licence that night for the New Year celebrations.

Another man, Kenneth Ellis, took a bullet to the wrist, which police later recovered from a wall – though he declined to take it as a souvenir.

Although the two police officers’ ‘exemplary courage’ was mentioned during Ismail’s later court appearances – he was declared mentally unwell and sent to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital – PC Robertson’s grandson Will Banks believes their bravery was overlooked at the time. The gun still had a round in it when they recovered it after overpowering Ismail.

Mr Banks said: “It’s difficult to put into words. It’s amazing to think this happened to a member of your family. The whole story is on the internet but it’s not something I knew much about. I want to learn more about this to learn more about Grandpa and to share that with future generations of the family.”

PC Robertson was a Londoner who was sent to Sheffield while serving in the armed forces during the war, and stayed after he met his wife Joan Hattersley at a bus station. He worked for the Midland Bank after leaving the police, lived in North Anston and died in 1987.

South Yorkshire Police’s chief constable Lauren Poultney said: “PCs Gilbert Robertson and Denis Hastings served their community with the utmost bravery that night, thinking quickly and diffusing the situation.

“Police officers can receive all the training in the world, but nothing will quite prepare you for a situation like this which required them to risk their own safety to remove a weapon from a volatile situation.

“Who knows what might have happened if Ismail had not been apprehended so quickly. We are proud to recognise two officers who embody what we stand for and would have been great examples to follow when the force we know today was created in 1974.”

Ismail was later deported to Somalia, but was killed in the 1960s during a shoot-out in a village during which he ‘ran amok’.