John Giffard (police Officer)
John William Giffard (born 1951 or 1952) is a British retired police officer. Adopted into an aristocratic family that owns Chillington Hall, he joined Staffordshire Police in 1973 as a beat bobby. After serving as a staff officer to the chief constable and a divisional commander he moved to North Yorkshire Police in 1991 to take up a position as assistant chief constable. Giffard returned to Staffordshire Police in 1996 to become its chief constable, a role he held for a record ten years. As chief constable he reorganised the force's divisions and introduced the Major Investigations Department. During his tenure car theft and burglaries dropped and there were no undetected murders. Giffard also served on secondment to the Home Office to assist with a review into options to merge police forces in England and Wales. His work was recognised with the award of the Queen's Police Medal and appointment as a commander of the Order of the British Empire. In retirement Giffard ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chillington Hall
Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane in 1785. The park and lake were landscaped by Capability Brown. In the Domesday Book, Chillington (Cillintone) is entered under Warwickshire as forming part of the estates of William FitzCorbucion. His grandson Peter Corbesun of Studley granted Chillington to Peter Giffard, his wife's nephew, for a sum of 25 marks and a charger of metal. The present house is the third on the site. In the 12th century there was a stone castle on the site, a small corner of which can be seen in the cellars of the present house, and beside it the original house. This house was replaced in the 16th century by Sir John Giffard, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire on five occasions. Peter Giffard began the third building by demolishing and replacing part ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frank McLynn
Francis James McLynn FRHistS FRGS (born 29 August 1941), known as Frank McLynn, is a British author, biographer, historian and journalist. He is noted for critically acclaimed biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte, Robert Louis Stevenson, Carl Jung, Richard Francis Burton and Henry Morton Stanley. Early life and education McLynn was educated at Wadham College, Oxford and the University of London. He was Alistair Horne Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford (1987–88) and was visiting professor in the Department of Literature at the University of Strathclyde (1996–2001)Frank McLynn, "Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution", Back cover bio/ref> and professorial fellow at Goldsmiths College, Goldsmiths College London (2000–2002) before becoming a full-time writer. Bibliography Books *''France and the Jacobite Rising of 1745'' (1981), Edinburgh University Press *''The Jacobite Army in England, 1745–46'' (1983), John Donald Publishers Ltd *''The J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Countryside Alliance
The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to "Give Rural Britain a voice". History The Countryside Alliance was formed on 10 July 1997 from three organisations: the British Field Sports Society, the Countryside Business Group, and the Countryside Movement. The Alliance was formed to help promote and defend the British countryside and rural life, both in the media and in Parliament. Since then, the Countryside Alliance has campaigned on a number of issues which they believe are important to rural Britain. In 2008 organisation was named the 'most inspiring political personality' of the last ten years by ''Channel 4 News''. It broadly outlines its major campaigns through a Rural Charter which focuses on the following major themes: * 'Make Brexit work for the countryside' * 'Buy British by supporting our farmers and producers' * 'Recognise the impor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Albrighton Hunt
The Albrighton Hunt is a United Kingdom foxhound pack, with hunting country of around 30-35 miles by within Shropshire and Staffordshire. History The Albrighton Hunt was preceded by two hunts in the North and South country, called the Shifnal and Enville respectively. There are records of the Enville hunt from 1792, while the Shifnal country was frequently hunted by Sir Richard Puleston from the neighbouring Wynnstay country. The hunt itself came into existence in 1825, with the country then covering from Newport down to Bewdley and Kidderminster. The existing hunt came into formal existence in 1830, under the patronage of the Earl of Stamford. Country The hunt country lies in Shropshire and Staffordshire, with key centres including Stafford and Newport. At the time of the passing of the Hunting Act 2004, which heavily restricted hunting with hounds, the chief constable of Staffordshire Police was John Giffard, also squire of Chillington Hall and direct descendant of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fox Hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of hounds"), follow the hounds on foot or on horseback. In Australia, the term also refers to the hunting of foxes with firearms, similar to deer hunting. Fox hunting with hounds, as a formalised activity, originated in England in the sixteenth century, in a form very similar to that practised until February 2005, when a law banning the activity in England and Wales came into force. A ban on hunting in Scotland had been passed in 2002, but it continues to be within the law in Northern Ireland and several other areas, including Australia, Canada, France, the Republic of Ireland and the United States. The sport is controversial, particularly in the United Kingdom. Proponents of fox hunting view it as an important part of rural culture, and use ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hunting Act 2004
The Hunting Act 2004 (c 37) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals (notably foxes, deer, hares and mink) with dogs in England and Wales, subject to some strictly limited exemptions; the Act does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal, nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent. The Act came into force on 18 February 2005. The pursuit of foxes with hounds, other than to flush out to be shot, had been banned in Scotland two years earlier by the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. Such hunting remains permitted by the law in Northern Ireland, where the Act does not apply. History Background Several UK laws on animal welfare, such as the Protection of Animals Act 1911, the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 contained specific exemptions for hunting activities, thereby preventing pro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Estate Agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged in the marketing of property available for sale, and a solicitor or licensed conveyancer is used to prepare the legal documents. In Scotland, however, many solicitors also act as estate agents, a practice that is rare in England and Wales. 'Estate agent' remains the current title for the person responsible for the management of one group of privately owned, all or mostly tenanted properties under one ownership. Alternative titles are factor, steward, or bailiff, depending on the era, region, and extent of the property concerned. Origin The term originally referred to a person responsible for managing a landed estate, while those engaged in the buying and selling of homes were "''House Agents''", and those selling land were "Land Agents". ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Perfect Crime
Perfect crimes are crimes that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (especially crime fiction). In certain contexts, the concept of perfect crime is limited to just undetected crimes; if an event is ever identified as a crime, some investigators say it cannot be called "perfect". A perfect crime should be distinguished from one that has merely not been solved yet or where everyday chance or procedural matters frustrate a conviction. There is an element that the crime is (or appears likely to be) ''unable'' to be solved. Overview As used by some criminologists and others who study criminal investigations (including mystery writers), a perfect crime goes unsolved not because of incompetence in the investigation, but because of the cleverness and skill of the criminal. In other words, the defining factor i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national security, policing and immigration policies of the United Kingdom. As a Great Office of State, the home secretary is one of the most senior and influential ministers in the government. The incumbent is a statutory member of the British Cabinet and National Security Council. The position, which may be known as interior minister in other nations, was created in 1782, though its responsibilities have changed many times. Past office holders have included the prime ministers Lord North, Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston, Winston Churchill, James Callaghan and Theresa May. In 2007, Jacqui Smith became the first female home secretary. The incumbent home secretary is Suella Braverman. The office holder works alongside the ot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2003 New Year Honours
The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this day in this way. These awards are presented by or in the name of the reigning monarch, i.e. Queen Elizabeth II or her vice-regal representative. The list of honours for each year is announced on or around New Year's Day in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand,"The New Year Honours 2003" (10 January 203) 2 '''' 81.< ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cannock
Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverhampton are also nearby. Cannock lies to the north of the West Midlands conurbation on the M6, A34 and A5 roads, and to the south of The Chase, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Cannock is served by a railway station on the Chase Line. The town comprises four district council electoral wards and the Cannock South ward includes the civil parish of Bridgtown, but the rest of Cannock is unparished. History Cannock was in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was called Chnoc c.1130, Cnot in 1156, Canot in 1157, and Canoc in 1198. Cannock is probably Old English cnocc meaning 'hillock', modified by Norman pronunciation by the insertion of a vowel to Canoc. The name may refer to Shoal Hill, north-west of the town. Cannock was a small ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in the 2021 census, It is the main settlement within the larger borough of Stafford which had a population of 136,837 (2021). History Stafford means "ford" by a staithe (landing place). The original settlement was on a dry sand and gravel peninsula that offered a strategic crossing point in the marshy valley of the River Sow, a tributary of the River Trent. There is still a large area of marshland north-west of the town, which is subject to flooding and did so in 1947, 2000, 2007 and 2019. Stafford is thought to have been founded about AD 700 by a Mercian prince called Bertelin, who, legend has it, founded a hermitage on a peninsula named Betheney. Until recently it was thought that the remains of a wooden preaching cross from the time h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |