Sir Brian Crossland Cubbon GCB (9 April 1928 – 20 May 2015) was a British senior

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and a member of the Charter Compliance Panel of the

Press Complaints Commission The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was a voluntary Regulation, regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC closed on Monday 8 September 2014, and was replaced ...

Biography

Cubbon was born in Oswaldtwisle, Lancashire on 9 April 1928. His father, Edward Moore Cubbon was a primary school teacher and his mother was Anita Jane, née Crossland. Cubbon was educated at Bury Grammar School under a scholarship and went on to study Classics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, graduating in 1949. He spent a while in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers for

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

. He became Permanent Under Secretary of State (the senior civil servant in charge of a Government department) of the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for No ...

from 1976 to 1979 and

Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office The Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Home Office is the permanent secretary of the Home Office, the most senior civil servant in the department, charged with running its affairs on a day-to-day basis. Home Office Permanent Secretaries ...

from 1979 to 1988. He was a

Commissioner from 1995 to 2002. Cubbon was injured in an IRA bomb explosion in which the British Ambassador to Ireland,

Christopher Ewart-Biggs Christopher Thomas Ewart Ewart-Biggs, (5 August 1921 – 21 July 1976) was the British Ambassador to Ireland, an author and senior Foreign Office liaison officer with MI6. He was killed in 1976 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) i ...

, was killed in 1976. The car in which the party was travelling was blown up by a bomb concealed in a culvert under the road. Cubbon's Private Secretary, Judith Cooke, was also killed, and the driver, Brian O'Driscoll, was injured. He married art teacher, Lorin Richardson on 20 October 1956 and they had four children. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the Bath Empire (CB) in 1974, Knight Commander (KCB) in 1977 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) 1984, the highest rank of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as ...

. He died of a heart attack on 20 May 2015 at the age of 87.

Coat of arms

Sir Brian was granted a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

in 2002. Blazon: Argent a Pall cotized and gyronny of six Azure and Gules the Azure formy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubbon, Brian 1928 births 2015 deaths People educated at Bury Grammar School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for the Home Department Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Place of birth missing