Sir John Charles Hermon (23 November 1928 – 6 November 2008) was the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1980–1989.

Early life

'Jack' Hermon was born in Castletown,

Islandmagee Islandmagee () is a peninsula and civil parish on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Whitehead. It is part of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, to William Rowan Hermon, a building contractor, and his wife, Agnes. He had a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

education and gave up an early career in accountancy to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1950.

Career

After joining the RUC, he was posted in various parts of western Northern Ireland, including Eglinton,

Coalisland Coalisland () is a small town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with a population of 5,682 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. Four miles from Lough Neagh, it was formerly a centre for coal mining. History Origins In the late ...

and Strabane, before sitting his sergeant's examinations. He was the first RUC officer to attend the advanced policing course at the British police training college in

Bramshill Bramshill is a civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. Its name has become synonymous with the Police Staff College, Bramshill located in Bramshill House. Bramshill forms part of the district of Hart. It is bordered by the Rivers Whit ...

in England in 1963. He became Chief Constable in 1980, after an attachment to Scotland Yard. As Chief Constable, he changed the interview processes of terrorist suspects at the Castlereagh interrogation centre. An anonymous former interrogator has claimed that "The new chief constable was completely against any mistreatment of prisoners whatsoever...we started to detect a change .... straight away." Hermon is thought to have believed that the allegations of mistreatment were harming relations between the RUC and the wider communities.Ian Cobai
'Inside Castlereagh: 'We got confessions by torture'
(''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Monday, 11 October 2010) He retired in 1989, and became the longest-serving Chief Constable of the RUC. One analysis has argued that Hermon's actions in charge of the RUC 'transformed it into a more independent force, shorn of its worst sectarian sympathies' and that these reforms also had the effect of allowing the RUC to be better able to support the peace process in the 1990s than it would have been otherwise. After retiring, he became, in June 1989, a consultant to a private security company.

Marriages

He married Jean Webb in 1954, and had a son and a daughter before she died of cancer in 1986. In 1987 he met Sylvia Paisley who had written an academic paper critical of Hermon's conduct in an employment case brought by female RUC officers. They married and had two sons. After his death, his widow, Lady Hermon, was, from 2005 to 2010, the sole

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

(UUP) Member of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

. From 2010 she was re-elected as an independent, with an increased majority. She held the North Down seat from 2001 to 2019.

Politics

In 1998, Hermon campaigned for a yes vote during the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

referendum.Obituary
timesonline.co.uk; accessed 22 June 2017.

Death

Hermon suffered from Alzheimer's disease from at least 2004 until his death on 6 November 2008, a few weeks before his 80th birthday. He died in a nursing home in Bangor.

Honours

Hermon was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

1975 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1975 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were published on 6 June 1975 for ...

. He was knighted in the

1982 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1982 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

and received the

Queen's Police Medal The King's Police Medal (KPM) is awarded to police in the United Kingdom for gallantry or distinguished service. It was also formerly awarded within the wider British Empire, including Commonwealth countries, most of which now have their own hono ...

in the

1988 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supple ...

.United Kingdom list:

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Police Long Service and Good Conduct ribbon

Royal Ulster Constabulary Service Medal ribbon

Publications

* ''Holding the Line'' (1997 autobiography)

References

External links

"Former RUC chief moved out of nursing home after terror alert"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermon, John 1928 births 2008 deaths Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Knights Bachelor Officers of the Order of the British Empire category:Chief Constables of the Royal Ulster Constabulary People from County Antrim Northern Irish recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Deaths from dementia in Northern Ireland