George Albert Esson (b. 30 March 1942, d. 13 July 2022) was

Assistant Chief Constable Assistant chief constable (ACC) is the third highest rank in all British territorial police forces (except the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police, in which the equivalent rank is commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as C ...

Grampian Police Grampian Police was, between 1975 and 2013 (replaced by Police Scotland), the territorial police force of the northeast region of Scotland, covering, from 1996, the council areas of Aberdeenshire, the Aberdeen City, and Moray (the former Gramp ...

and Chief Constable of

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary was the territorial police force responsible for Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland until 1 April 2013. The police force was formed in 1948 as an amalgamation of the police forces of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshi ...

(1989-1994). He was at the centre of major inquiries into the

Piper Alpha Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea about north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 1976, initially as an oi ...

disaster and the 1986 Chinook Helicopter Crash. He also headed the police investigation into the

Lockerbie Bombing Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...

. He is a graduate of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

. After retiring from the Police, he worked for

Shell UK Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Y ...

as a security and external affairs advisor and led their response to the

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

protests at the decommissioning of the

Brent Spar Brent Spar, known as Brent "E", was a North Sea oil storage and tanker loading buoy in the Brent oilfield, operated by Shell UK. With the completion of a pipeline connection to the oil terminal at Sullom Voe in Shetland, the storage facil ...

oil facility in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. He was appointed

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1994 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday. Publication dates vary from year to year. Most are published in supplements to the ''London Gazette'' and many are formally conferred by the monarch (o ...

References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20111003185235/http://www.professionalsecurity.co.uk/newsdetails.aspx?NewsArticleID=6137&imgID=1 * * https://web.archive.org/web/20120316003642/http://www.abdn.ac.uk/alumni/events/month.php?month=November&year=2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Esson, George 1942 births Living people Alumni of the University of Aberdeen British Chief Constables Scottish recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Commanders of the Order of the British Empire