WATERLOO REGION — The Waterloo Regional Police Service is hosting a memorial service to mark 20 years since Const. David Nicholson and 12-year-old Mark Gage died at the Parkhill dam in Cambridge.

The service will take place in Mill Race Park on Aug. 12 with a ceremony start of 9:30 a.m.

Nicholson, who joined the police service in 1989, drowned on Aug. 12, 1998 at the age of 32. He was pulled into a sluice in the dam when attempting to recover the body of Gage, who drowned while swimming.

Nicholson was the first officer in the service's history to die in the line of duty.

In addition to the memorial service, members of the Waterloo Regional Police Service will also wear a silver commemorative pin displaying Nicholson's badge number "589," for the entire month of August.