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 service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and a member of the Charter Compliance Panel of the

Press Complaints Commission The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was a voluntary 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 by the Ind ...

Biography

Cubbon was born in Oswaldtwistle, 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 Bury Grammar School is a 3–18 private day school for boys in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, that has existed since c.1570. It is now part of a group of schools for preschool, junior, senior and sixth form studies. Since 2017, when Bu ...

under a scholarship and went on to study Classics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 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 ...

, graduating in 1949. He spent a while in the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is the maintenance arm of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's professional engineers". History Prior t ...

for

national service National service is a system of compulsory or 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 ...

. 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; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

from 1976 to 1979 and

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

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 Republic of Ireland, Ireland, an author and senior Foreign Office liaison officer with MI6. He was killed in 1976 by the Provisional Irish Rep ...

, 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 Companion of the Order of the Bath (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 King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

. 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 heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

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