Graham Shillington

Sir Robert Edward Graham Shillington CBE (2 April 1911 – 14 August 2001) was a senior Northern Irish police officer. He served as Chief Constable of Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1970 to 1973. Early life Shillington was born on 2 April 1911 in Portadown, Ireland. He was educated at Castle Park School, a prep school in Dublin, Ireland, and Sedbergh School, a public boarding school in Yorkshire, England.

In 1969, Shillington was appointed Deputy Inspector-General of the RUC, as second-in command to the Inspector-General, Anthony Peacocke (who, like Shillington, had been educated at Sedbergh and Cambridge). When the Battle of the Bogside broke out in Derry City in August, Shillington asked for permission to use CS gas for the first time in the United Kingdom. When that did not halt the rioting, he requested that the British Army be brought in.

Shortly thereafter, Sir Arthur Young was seconded from the City of London Police to be the last Inspector-General and the first Chief Constable of the RUC. James Callaghan, then Home Secretary, sent him to implement the Hunt Report. Young's measures introduced the standard British rank system for police officers in Northern Ireland and disbanded the Ulster Special Constabulary. Shillington remained as Young's deputy, and when the latter returned to the mainland in 1970 he succeeded him to become the RUC's second Chief Constable.

Honours and decorations In the 1952 New Year Honours, Shillington was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1959 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was knighted in the 1972 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Personal life Shillington married Mary (Peggy), née Bulloch, in 1935. They had two sons and a daughter.