Sir Harold Scott GCVO KCB KBE |
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15th Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis | |
In office 1 June 1945 – 13 August 1953 |
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Preceded by | Sir Philip Game |
Succeeded by | Sir John Nott-Bower |
Personal details | |
Born |
Harold Richard Scott 24 December 1887 Banbury, Oxfordshire, England |
Died | 19 October 1969 Minehead, Somerset, England |
(aged 81)
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Ethel Mary Golledge (m. 1916) |
Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Civil servant |
Sir Harold Richard Scott GCVO KCB KBE (24 December 1887 – 19 October 1969) was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1945 to 1953.
Scott was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire and brought up in Bruton, Somerset. He was educated at Sexey's School and later Jesus College of the University of Cambridge. In 1911, he joined the Home Office as a civil servant, where he worked in various capacities including Secretary to the Labour Resettlement Committee (1918–1919) and Chairman of the Prison Commission (1932–1939). With the outbreak of the Second World War, Scott's work took on a more military capacity, as he joined London's Civil Defence Administration until he was appointed as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1943.
In late 1944, the Home Secretary Herbert Morrison asked Scott to accept the post as Metropolitan Police Commissioner when the war was over. The appointment in 1945 caused a stir in police circles—Scott was the first Commissioner without a police or military background since Sir Richard Mayne (who had been a lawyer when appointed). Unlike all subsequent commissioners, he was not a career police officer.