Robert Mark

Sir Robert Mark (13 March 1917 – 30 September 2010) was a senior British police officer who served as Chief Constable of Leicester City Police, and later as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1972 to 1977.

Mark was the first Metropolitan Commissioner to have risen through all the ranks from the lowest to the highest (a route followed by all subsequent Commissioners), although a few predecessors had served as Constables prior to fast-track promotion.

Early life Mark was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, a suburb of Manchester, the youngest of five children of a prosperous mantle manufacturer originally from Yorkshire. He was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School, where he was undistinguished academically, but became captain of rugby and head prefect. he got a job as a carpet salesman, but finding this boring,

He was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps in October 1943. He initially served with the 108th Regiment (Lancashire Fusiliers), but through the influence of his elder brother James, who worked at the War Office, attached to the GHQ Liaison Regiment, known as Phantom, which provided liaison with special forces units. With them, he took part in the Normandy landings. In 1945 he was promoted captain and posted to the military government at Bad Oeynhausen in Germany, where he remained until his demobilisation as a major in 1947.

Return to Manchester Returning to Manchester and Special Branch, he was soon promoted Detective Sergeant, where his welcome was less than ecstatic from a force that did not like outsiders;

In general, he was supported by the uniformed branch, who were themselves exasperated with CID corruption. Brodie took early retirement the day before and was replaced by Assistant Commissioner "B" Colin Woods, who had never previously served in CID. Mark continued to root out corruption, ably assisted by his Deputy Commissioner, Sir James Starritt. He also had to deal with the increase in IRA terrorism, including the Balcombe Street Siege, and also the Knightsbridge Spaghetti House Siege, taking personal command of both.

Although popular with liberals for his stamping out of police corruption, Mark was himself far from a liberal, had no time for anti-establishment demonstrators and such groups as the National Council for Civil Liberties,

Honours He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in the 1965 Birthday Honours, knighted in the 1973 New Year Honours, and appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1977 New Year Honours. He was appointed Knight of the Order of Saint John in 1978.

Knight Grand Cross

Mark received the Freedom of the City of Westminster on 22 June 1977 and the City of London on 23 July 1979, and the Freedom of the City of New York from Mayor John Lindsay. He received the honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters from the Loughborough University of Technology in December 1976 and Doctor of Laws from the University of Liverpool on 6 July 1978.

Post-retirement activities Following his resignation, he became a director of the private security consultancy Phoenix Assurance and Control Risks. From 1970 to 1978 he was a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. In the late 1970s, he appeared in television adverts for Goodyear tyres and his "I'm convinced they're a major contribution to road safety" became a widely used catchphrase. (This advert was parodied by both Dave Allen and Not the Nine O'Clock News.)

In 1976, Mark travelled to the United States to chair a conference designed to assist the Washington, D.C.–based Police Foundation in setting up the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank devoted to training police executives and improving management practices.

Personal life He married Kathleen Mary Leahy in 1941; they had a son and a daughter. She died in 1997. His memoirs, In the Office of Constable, were published in 1978. He also wrote Policing a Perplexed Society, published in 1977.