Sir John Chilcot's Biography

Sir John Chilcot was born on 22 April 1939, the son of Henry and Catherine Chilcot.

He was a scholar at Brighton College and then at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied English, and Modern and Medieval Languages.

Sir John Chilcot joined the Home Office in 1963 and had many roles within the civil service culminating in being the Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office from 1990 to 1997.

He was a member (or chairman) of a number of reviews and inquiries including the Independent Commission on the Voting System (1997-98), an inquiry into the IRA break-in at the Northern Ireland police service's Special Branch HQ, and the Review of the Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction by a Committee of Privy Counsellors, chaired by Lord Butler.

He was also Staff Counsellor to the Security and Intelligence Agencies (1999-2004) and to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (2002-06).

His other roles included being President of a think-tank the Police Foundation, and a director of RTZ Pillar.

Sir John Chilcot married Rosalind Chilcot in 1964.

Many people criticised the length of time the Iraq Inquiry called by Gordon Brown back in 15 June 2009, otherwise known as the Chilcot Inquiry, took to publish its report. Eventually a publication date of 6 July 2016 was selected "to prepare the 2.6 million word report for publication, including final proof reading, formatting, printing and the steps required for electronic publication."  

He died on 3 October 2021.