Charles William Dunn joined the Essex Constabulary in April 1892 (as Constable 286) and during his short service he was stationed for a time at both Ongar and Epping. On the 15 June 1899 he was presented by HRH Duke of York (George V) with a Royal Humane Society Award for saving the life of one George Bridge from drowning at Ongar, on the 18 May 1899.
Dunn resigned from the police in 1902 and for a while was the licensee of the Merry Fiddlers Public House at Coopersale, and later a shopkeeper on Bell Common, Epping, where he died in 1946, aged 73.