Kenneth Bloomfield

Sir Kenneth Percy Bloomfield (born April 15 1931) is a former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service who was later a member of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains and for a time Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner. In addition to this, he has held a variety of public sector posts in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Early and personal life

Sir Kenneth Bloomfield was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1931. Between the years on 1943 and 1949, he attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and later went on to read Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford. He is married with two children. [cite book |title=A New Life |last=Bloomfield |first=Sir Kenneth |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |publisher=The Brehon Press |location=Belfast |isbn=978-1-905474-26-4 |pages= ] Sir Kenneth received a Knighthood in the 1987 Birthday Honours List and has received honourary doctorates from Queen's University, Belfast and the Open University. In 1988, he and his wife were the targets of an IRA attack on their home in Crawfordsburn, County Down; neither Bloomfield nor his wife were injured in the blast. [cite news | author=Noel McAdam | title= Unity 'not unthinkable' | work= Belfast Telegraph | page= 2| date=2007-08-24] [cite book |title=A New Life |last=Bloomfield |first=Sir Kenneth |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |publisher=The Brehon Press |location=Belfast |isbn=978-1-905474-26-4 |pages= ]

Public sector career

Having joined the Civil Service in 1952, he was appointed Permanent Secretary to the power sharing executive in 1974. After the collapse of the executive, he went on to become Permanent Secretary for the Department of the Environment and the Department of Economic Development, and finally Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service on 1 December 1984. In that capacity he was the most senior advisor to successive Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and other Ministers on a wide range of issues. He retired from the post in April 1991. [cite book |title=A New Life |last=Bloomfield |first=Sir Kenneth |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |publisher=The Brehon Press |location=Belfast |isbn=978-1-905474-26-4 |pages=Prologue ]

Retirement

Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, since retiring from the Civil Service, has embarked on life of involvement in a diverse range of organisations. He has taken up roles such as Chairman for the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission and his alma mater, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He has also been involved in the political reform of the States of Jersey and most recently, spearheading the Association for Quality Education, which is fighting to retain academic selection in the Northern Ireland education system. [cite book |title=A New Life |last=Bloomfield |first=Sir Kenneth |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |publisher=The Brehon Press |location=Belfast |isbn=978-1-905474-26-4 |pages= ] In December 1997 he was asked by the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, to become the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner for a fixed term. His role was to produce a report on the way forward for Victims issues in Northern Ireland. His report entitled "We Will Remember Them" was published in April 1998. From 1991 to 1999 he served as the BBC's National Governor for Northern Ireland.

Works

* "A New Life" (2008)
* "A Tragedy of Errors" (2007)
* "We will remember them" (1998) [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/violence/victims.htm Full text from CAIN]
* "Stormont in Crisis, a memoir" (1994)

External links

*Northern Ireland Civil Service
*Royal Belfast Academical Institution

References