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John Chilcot

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The Right Honourable
Sir John Chilcot
GCB
Chilcot in 1980
Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
1990–1997
Personal details
Born
John Anthony Chilcot

(1939-04-22)22 April 1939
Surrey, England
Died3 October 2021(2021-10-03) (aged 82)
Devon, England
Spouse
Rosalind Forster
​
(m. 1964)​
[1]
Residence(s)Dartmoor,[1] England
EducationBrighton College
Alma materPembroke College, Cambridge
OccupationCivil servant
Signature

Sir John Anthony Chilcot GCB[1] (/ˈtʃɪlkɒt/; 22 April 1939 – 3 October 2021) was a British civil servant.

In 2009, Chilcot was appointed chairman of the Iraq Inquiry (also referred to as the "Chilcot Inquiry"), an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Iraq War (2003).[2]

Career

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A career civil servant until his retirement in 1997, Chilcot served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, Deputy Under-Secretary at the Home Office in charge of the Police Department, and a variety of posts in the Home Office, the Civil Service Department and the Cabinet Office, including Private Secretary appointments to Home Secretaries Roy Jenkins, Merlyn Rees, and William Whitelaw, and to the Head of the Civil Service, William Armstrong.[3]

Chilcot acted as "staff counsellor" to MI5 and MI6 from 1999 to 2004, "dealing with private and personal complaints from members of the intelligence services about their work and conditions".[4]

Chilcot became a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 2004, which gave him the prenominal style 'The Right Honourable'.[5]

The Butler Review (2004)

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Main article: Butler Review

Chilcot was a member of the Butler Review of the misuse of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.[5]

Chilcot Inquiry (2009–2016)

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Main article: Iraq Inquiry

On 15 June 2009, the then British prime minister Gordon Brown announced that Chilcot would chair an inquiry into the Iraq War, despite his participation in the discredited secret Butler report. Opposition parties, campaigners and back bench members of the governing Labour Party condemned the decision to hold the inquiry in secret and its highly restrictive terms of reference which would not, for example, permit any blame to be apportioned.[6]

In 2015, Chilcot was criticised as the Inquiry remained unpublished after six years.[7] The head of Her Majesty's Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood said the inquiry had repeatedly turned down offers of extra assistance to help speed up the report. On 29 October 2015, it was announced that the inquiry would be published in June or July 2016.[8]

The report was published on 6 July 2016, more than seven years after the inquiry was announced.[9] The report stated that at the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein did not pose an urgent threat to British interests, that intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction was presented with too much certainty, that peaceful options to war had not been exhausted, that the United Kingdom and United States had undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council, that the process of identifying the legal basis was "far from satisfactory", and that a war was unnecessary.[10][11]

Later work

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Chilcot was president of Britain's independent policing think tank, The Police Foundation.[12][13]

Personal life and death

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Chilcot was born on 22 April 1939, and educated at Brighton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read English and languages.[14][5][15]

Chilcot died from kidney disease on 3 October 2021, at the age of 82.[1]

Honours

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Chilcot was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1990 Birthday Honours[16] before being promoted to Knight Commander (KCB) in the 1994 New Year Honours[17] and Knight Grand Cross (GCB) in the 1998 New Year Honours.[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Sir John Chilcot obituary". The Times. 4 October 2021. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Wintour, Patrick (15 June 2009). "David Cameron says he favours a more secret approach to Iraq inquiry". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Biographies of the Review Team – Rt Hon Sir John Chilcot GCB". Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Archived from the original on 21 July 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  4. ^ Kirkup, James (24 November 2009). "Iraq inquiry: profile of Sir John Chilcot". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  5. ^ a b c "Rt Hon Sir John Chilcot GCB (H/S. 1952–57), OB of the Month, July 2011". Old Brightonians – The Alumni of Brighton College. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Anger over 'secret Iraq inquiry'". BBC News. 16 June 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  7. ^ "Iraq inquiry: Soldiers' families threaten to sue Chilcot". BBC News. 13 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Iraq Inquiry published 'in June or July 2016' Sir John Chilcot says". BBC News. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  9. ^ "Iraq Inquiry: Chilcot report to be published on 6 July". BBC News. 9 May 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  10. ^ Luke Harding (6 July 2016). "Chilcot delivers crushing verdict on Blair and the Iraq war". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  11. ^ Leon Watson (6 July 2016). "Chilcot report: 2003 Iraq war was 'unnecessary', invasion was not 'last resort' and Saddam Hussein was 'no imminent threat'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  12. ^ "Trustees, patrons and associates". Police Foundation. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  13. ^ Wawrzak, Kaja. "MEC Friday Seminar – The Iraq War Inquiry: a study in contemporary political, diplomatic, military and reconstruction history". University of Oxford. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  14. ^ Oppenheim, Maya (6 July 2016). "7 years, £10m and 100 witnesses: The man behind the Chilcot report". The Independent. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  15. ^ Bosberry-Scott, Wendy (2010). Which London School? and the South-East 2010/2011. John Catt Educational Ltd. p. 95. ISBN 9781904724780.
  16. ^ "No. 52173". The London Gazette. 15 June 1990. p. 3.
  17. ^ "No. 53527". The London Gazette. 31 December 1993. p. 3.
  18. ^ Order of Service And Ceremony of The Installation of: Knights Grand Cross of The Most Honourable Order of The Bath. In the Order's 289th Anniversary Year. 9 May 2014. p. 8.
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