Stephanie Davies (pictured above), a 35-year-old school crossing patrol officer from Salford, was on duty outside her daughter Anna’s primary school on a September afternoon in 2006.
Minutes before hordes of schoolchildren were due to come flooding out of the school gates, a bus lost control and mounted the pavement, crashing into Stephanie. She died at the scene, her husband just metres away where he had been waiting to collect five-year-old Anna. The couple’s son Adam, aged 15, was making his way home from school, too.
Anna’s recollection of the events that afternoon is fragmented. “Towards the end of the day, there was this big rush of people around the school. I was told I was going to my best friend’s house and we had to leave round the back of the school. I didn’t really think anything of it,” Anna says.
“Later on, my dad came to pick me up and he carried me home on his shoulders. I remember thinking, ‘This is the best day! I’ve gone to my friend’s house for tea and now I’m getting a shoulder ride home!’. When my dad told me my mum had died, all I could think was that she wasn’t going to watch me on the monkey bars anymore.”
Anna describes her mum as present and loving; a woman who loved her job, loved children and was well-known and treasured. When Stephanie was patrolling with her stop sign and guiding children and parents safely across the road, people would stop on the pavement for a chat. They knew her by name. “She had an impact on so many people, who’d see her for just 10 seconds a day, smiling and chatting,” Anna recalls.
Her loss was felt deeply across the community Stephanie was serving when she died. And now, almost 20 years later, that sacrifice has been recognised by HRH King Charles, with an Elizabeth Emblem presented to Stephanie’s family in her honour.
The Elizabeth Emblem award (credit: Amanda Clark, Cabinet Office)
The civilian equivalent of the Elizabeth Cross, the Elizabeth Emblem was introduced in 2024 as a commemorative award given in recognition of people who died in the course of public service. Stephanie was named alongside dozens of police officers, ambulance staff, firefighters and other public servants who died in action and whose families received the Emblem last month (January 2026).
Stephanie was nominated for the Elizabeth Emblem by her sisters, Janette and Diane, who attended a reception at Number 10 Downing Street on 14 January, along with the families of two other honourees.
“It's amazing! My mum – the lollipop lady – being recognised among all these sergeants in the police force,” Anna says, beaming with pride. “She would be laughing but absolutely honoured. She was training for a childcare qualification, and we still have folders of artwork she’d kept from different children. If something like a little piece of paper meant that much to her, this award would mean everything and more.”
My little boy looks up at the stars and says, ‘There’s nanna, the hero in the sky’
The silver emblem will be engraved with Stephanie’s name on one side, and the words ‘For a life given in service’ on the other. A crown and a rosemary wreath, which is symbol of remembrance, is also etched on the surface. The family will receive the inscribed emblem from a member of the Royal family at a future event.
“We’ll have a little pin badge too. It’s a nice way for me, as an adult now, to be able to talk about my mum in the way I remember,” Anna comments. “I’m so proud of her, even though receiving the award is like grieving all over again. It took me a while at the age of five for it to sink in that I didn’t have a mum anymore.”
In the aftermath of her loss, Anna was supported by a Brake caseworker who came into her school and would talk to her one-on-one, helping her to talk about her feelings and come to terms with what had happened. “They made everything a bit easier, and my dad says Brake was the best support he could have received after the crash.”
Almost 20 years on, Anna – herself a mum to three-year-old Ollie – is studying for a degree in primary education, following Stephanie’s path into a career working with children. “My mum was training to get her childcare qualification when she passed, so I feel like I'm carrying it on for the both of us.
“My little boy looks up at the stars and says, ‘There’s nanna, the hero in the sky’. Now I have my own child, all I can say is that if I’m half the mum that my mum was, I’ve achieved everything I want.”