Sir John Niall Henderson Blelloch (24 October 1930 – 1 August 2017) was a British civil servant who was Permanent Under Secretary of State at 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 1988 to 1990. Blelloch was born in Edinburgh on 24 October 1930, and was educated at

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational private boarding and day school in Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

. He graduated in 1954 and joined the Civil Service as Assistant Principal Officer at the War Office. He then served as Private Secretary to two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, and in 1958 was promoted to Principal Officer. In 1968, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, and in 1976 to Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, working on matters of national security. He served as a Deputy Secretary in the

Office from 1980 to 1982, while resident in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He held the posts of Deputy Secretary (Policy) and then Second Permanent Under Secretary at the

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

between 1982 and 1988 when he took up his post as Permanent Under Secretary of State at the

, an appointment he held until 1990.''Pen Pictures''
''Sentence Review Commission''; accessed 3 November 2007. From 1998, he was the co-chair of the Northern Ireland Sentence Review Commission, along with Brian Currin. He was Vice-Chairman of

The Automobile Association AA Limited, trading as The AA, is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. The association demutualised in 1999 ...

and held a number of other appointments on government committees and with voluntary organisations.

Death

Sir John Blelloch died on 1 August 2017, aged 86.

References

Sources

Blelloch, Sir John (Niall Henderson)
''Who's Who 2014'', A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 1930 births 2017 deaths People educated at Fettes College Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland Second Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Defence {{UK-gov-bio-stub