McDonald Jones Stadium to host funeral for Tony Townsend

Chief Inspector Tony Townsend will be farewelled on Thursday

FOUNDATION Newcastle Knights player and highly respected Hunter policeman Tony Townsend will be farewelled on Thursday.

The full police funeral at McDonald Jones Stadium will celebrate the life of Chief Inspector Townsend, affectionately known by fellow officers as TT, who died at his home on August 22.

The funeral, which is open to the public, will start at 10am. NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon and other members of the police executive will attend.

Townsend, who was diagnosed almost a decade ago with leukemia, was one of the Knights' 1988 "pioneers" and left an indelible stamp on the club's history.

Chief Inspector Tony Townsend

A Dungog boy, he joined the NSW Police Force in 1983. He was working as a duty officer in Raymond Terrace at the time of his death.

Vice president of the NSW Police Association Ian Allwood said Townsend was "just loved" by the association's members and himself.

"I think he just encapsulated the core values of what being a police officer is," he said.