Peter Michael Imbert, Baron Imbert, (27 April 1933 – 13 November 2017) was

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

of the

Metropolitan Police Service 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 ...

from 1987 to 1993, and prior to that appointment Chief Constable of

Thames Valley Police Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. It the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales, covering a ...

from 1979 to 1985. He was the

Lord Lieutenant of Greater London The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London is the personal representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Greater London. Each Lord-Lieutenant is assisted in, largely ceremonial, duties by Deputy Lieutenants whom he appoints; the Lie ...

from 1998 until 2008. He was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Imbert, of New Romney in the County of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1999, sitting as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

Early life

Born in

, Imbert was educated at the

Harvey Grammar School The Harvey Grammar School is located in Folkestone, Kent, England. It is a grammar school with academy status founded by the family of William Harvey in 1674. Admissions A selective school for boys only, the school has around 900 on its roll. ...

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

, spent his National Service in the Royal Air Force Police and worked for a short time with Kent County Council, before joining the Metropolitan Police in 1953 at Bow Street Police Station. In 1956, he married Iris Dove, with whom he had three children.

Metropolitan Police

In 1956, Imbert joined

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

, learning

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

and Russian during his 17 years with the unit. In 1973, he was made deputy head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, where he became an expert on European terrorist groups such as

Baader-Meinhof The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

, and gave lectures on hostage negotiation and counter-terrorism tactics.

Balcombe Street Siege

On 6 December 1975, four members of the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

barricaded themselves in a flat in Balcombe Street,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

with two hostages. The men had been responsible for a wave of bombings in London, but had been intercepted by armed police while attacking a restaurant. Imbert was the chief negotiator over the six days of the

Balcombe Street Siege The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the r ...

, and when the situation ended peacefully with no lives lost and the four IRA members under arrest, Imbert was noted as a possible high-flyer in the police force.

Guildford Four case

Imbert's role in interrogating the

Guildford Four Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, convicted for the

Guildford Pub Bombings The Guildford pub bombings occurred on 5 October 1974 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England. The pubs were targeted because they were popular with British Army p ...

of 5 October 1974, came under scrutiny after the four were released from jail in 1989. Lord Chief Justice Lane described the police investigation of the Guildford Four as a sequence of false confessions and police deceits. Imbert claimed to have believed the suspects' “confessions” which were made during an interrogation where they were subjected to violence and threats.

County forces

In 1976, Imbert left the Met and became Assistant Chief Constable, and later Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey Constabulary. In 1979, he became Chief Constable of

, the youngest Chief Constable in the country at that time. During his time at Thames Valley, Imbert allowed the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Early life

Metropolitan Police

Balcombe Street Siege

Guildford Four case

County forces

Return to London

Honours

Imbert Prize

References

External links