Sir John Cyprian Nightingale (16 September 1913 – 1 October 2002) was a British police officer who rose to be Chief Constable of

Essex Constabulary Essex Police is a territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Essex, in the East of England. Essex Police is responsible for a population of over 1.8 million people and an area of . The chief constable is Ben-Julian Harrin ...

. He was born in Brixton, London, but after the death of his mother in the 1918 influenza epidemic went to live with other family members in South London. He was educated at the Roman Catholic Cardinal Vaughan School in Kensington and University College, London, where he gained a degree in the Classics. Classics. In 1935 he joined the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

as a constable and was selected to go the Metropolitan Police College at Hendon for training as an officer, after which he was appointed Junior Station Inspector. Promoted to Station Inspector at Chelsea Police Station he was awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

for Bravery in October 1941 for rescuing a man trapped in a bombed building. From 1943 to 1945 he served in an anti-submarine ship in the Western Approaches. After the war he returned to his career with the Metropolitan Police and was made Chief Inspector in March 1948. From 1950 to 1953 he served as a Director of the Police College at Ryton-on-Dunsmore and afterwards as Commandant of the Police Training Centre at Eynsham, Oxfordshire. In 1956 he became Chief Superintendent of 'H' Division which covered London's East End. In 1958 he was appointed an assistant chief constable for Essex Constabulary and was promoted to Chief Constable of Essex in 1962 on the retirement of Sir Jonathan Peel, a position he held until his own retirement in 1978. He also served as president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in 1973 and as chairman of the Police Council. In

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

he served as a deputy lieutenant of the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He was moved to the retired list upon reaching the mandatory retirement age for that position of 75.

Honours

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Police Long Service and Good Conduct ribbon

* He also served as a deputy lieutenant of the

. This gave him the

Post Nominal Letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...

"DL" for life.

Private life

He married, in 1947, to Patricia Compton; they lived in the Chief Constable's House at Essex Police headquarters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nightingale, John Cyprian 1913 births 2002 deaths People from Brixton British Chief Constables Recipients of the British Empire Medal Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Deputy Lieutenants of Essex category:Chief Constables of Essex Police