John Chilcot

{{Short description|British civil servant (1939–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use British English|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Sir John Chilcot | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB}} | image = Civil servant John Chilcot.jpg | image_size = | caption = Chilcot in 1980 | office1 = Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | term_start1 = 1990 | term_end1 = 1997 | prime_minister1 = | birth_name = John Anthony Chilcot | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1939|4|22}} | birth_place = Surrey, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2021|10|3|1939|4|22}} | death_place = Devon, England | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = Brighton College | alma_mater = Pembroke College, Cambridge | occupation = Civil servant | years_active = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | opponents = | spouse = {{marriage|Rosalind Forster|1964}}<ref name=thetimes/> | partner = | children = | relations = | callsign = | signature = John Chilcot signature.svg | website = | footnotes = | box_width = }}

'''Sir John Anthony Chilcot''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|ɪ|l|k|ɒ|t|}}; 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).<ref name=Wintour>{{cite news |last=Wintour |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Wintour |title=David Cameron says he favours a more secret approach to Iraq inquiry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/15/iraq-war-inquiry-conservative-reaction |date=15 June 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=30 July 2009}}</ref>

== Career ==

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Biographies of the Review Team – Rt Hon Sir John Chilcot GCB |url=http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/butlerreview/biography/sirchilcot.asp |work=Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction |access-date=30 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721204110/http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/butlerreview/biography/sirchilcot.asp |archive-date=21 July 2009}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6637394/Iraq-inquiry-profile-of-Sir-John-Chilcot.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091126205613/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6637394/Iraq-inquiry-profile-of-Sir-John-Chilcot.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=26 November 2009 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |title=Iraq inquiry: profile of Sir John Chilcot |first=James |last=Kirkup |date=24 November 2009 | access-date=6 May 2010}}</ref>

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

=== The Butler Review (2004) ===

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

=== Chilcot Inquiry (2009–2016) ===

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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Anger over 'secret Iraq inquiry' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8102203.stm |date=16 June 2009 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=30 July 2009}}</ref>

In 2015, Chilcot was criticised as the Inquiry remained unpublished after six years.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33898347 |title=Iraq inquiry: Soldiers' families threaten to sue Chilcot |publisher=BBC News |date=13 August 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Iraq Inquiry published 'in June or July 2016' Sir John Chilcot says |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34665607 |date=29 October 2015 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref>

The report was published on 6 July 2016, more than seven years after the inquiry was announced.<ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Iraq Inquiry: Chilcot report to be published on 6 July |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36251346 |publisher=BBC News |date=9 May 2016 |access-date=9 May 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="GuardianReport">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/chilcot-report-crushing-verdict-tony-blair-iraq-war |title=Chilcot delivers crushing verdict on Blair and the Iraq war |author=Luke Harding |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 July 2016|access-date=6 July 2016}}</ref><ref name="TelegraphReport">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/06/chilcot-inquiry-judgement-day-for-tony-blair-as-iraq-war-report/ |title=Chilcot report: 2003 Iraq war was 'unnecessary', invasion was not 'last resort' and Saddam Hussein was 'no imminent threat' |author=Leon Watson |date=6 July 2016|access-date=6 July 2016 |newspaper=The Telegraph}}</ref>

=== Later work ===

Chilcot was president of Britain's independent policing think tank, The Police Foundation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trustees, patrons and associates |url=http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/about-us/trustees-patrons |publisher=Police Foundation |access-date=28 March 2013}}</ref><ref name=Wawrzak>{{Cite web |url=https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/489eb91a-a25c-41b2-bce4-ff714c8e287d/ |title=MEC Friday Seminar – The Iraq War Inquiry: a study in contemporary political, diplomatic, military and reconstruction history |last=Wawrzak |first=Kaja |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=7 December 2019}}</ref>

== Personal life and death ==

Chilcot was born on 22 April 1939, and educated at Brighton College<ref name=LondonSchool>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlH6RjesBpUC&pg=PA95 |title=Which London School? and the South-East 2010/2011 |last=Bosberry-Scott |first=Wendy |date=2010 |publisher=John Catt Educational Ltd |isbn=9781904724780 |pages=95 |language=en}}</ref> and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read English and modern and mediaeval languages.<ref name="Oppenheim2016">{{Cite web |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sir-john-chilcot-profile-who-is-iraq-war-report-inquiry-tony-blair-civil-servant-a7122381.html |title=7 years, £10m and 100 witnesses: The man behind the Chilcot report |last=Oppenheim |first=Maya |date=6 July 2016 |website=The Independent |access-date=5 November 2019}}</ref>

He died from kidney disease on 3 October 2021, at the age of 82.<ref name=thetimes>{{cite news |title=Sir John Chilcot obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/sir-john-chilcot-obituary-6s5rxj0p6 |work=The Times |date=4 October 2021}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

== Honours ==

Chilcot was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1990 Birthday Honours<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=52173 |date=15 June 1990 |page=3}}</ref> before being promoted to Knight Commander (KCB) in the 1994 New Year Honours<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=53527 |date=31 December 1993 |page=3}}</ref> and Knight Grand Cross (GCB) in the 1998 New Year Honours.<ref>[https://www.westminster-abbey.org/media/5211/order-of-bath-2014-service.pdf 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.</ref>

== References ==

== External links ==

*Iraq Inquiry [https://web.archive.org/web/20160710124515/http://officialinquiries.atomatic.net/uk-parliament-iraq-inquiry/ Searchable text version] *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b067vkgq Sir John Chilcot]. BBC Radio 4, Profile {{Members of the Iraq Inquiry}} {{Members of the Butler Review}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chilcot, John}} Category:1939 births Category:2021 deaths Category:People educated at Brighton College Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Category:Permanent under-secretaries of state for Northern Ireland Category:Civil servants in the Home Office Category:Civil servants in the Cabinet Office Category:Civil servants in the Civil Service Department Category:Private secretaries in the British Civil Service Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Deaths from kidney disease