JCB

John Bliss

Police Officer

DAC John Cordeux Bliss (Who’s Who / Wiki) QPM, 1914 - 1999, was founder of The Regional Crime Squads, which evolved first into the National Crime Squad and then into the Regional Organised Crime Units of The National Crime Agency, and a fighter/bomber pilot during World War II.

JCB was born on the 16th of March 1914 in Finchley, London; son of Herbert Francis Bliss and Ida Muriel Hays, and grandson to William Bliss of Bliss Mill, Mayor of Chipping Norton, and Alfred Hays, musical instrument manufacturer and importer, theatre ticket agent and music publisher. The first Principle of St Hilda’s College in Oxford, Esther Burrows (neé Bliss) was his great aunt (her daughter Christine was the second).

He spent the first four years of his life in Finchley, before moving briefly to Ewelme in Oxfordshire when his father, who was too old to fight, was posted to land army duties during WW1 (Herbert kept a diary throughout this time). JCB was educated at Ovingdean Hall, near Brighton (later Ovingdean House), then Haileybury (his page is here), where he also sent his son Tom, but had to leave without taking his National Certificate because Herbert could no longer afford the fees (Bliss Mill had passed from family management in 1896 and Herbert was now a self-employed tweed designer and salesman).

JCB was an insurance clerk from 1932 until he joined the Metropolitan Police in 1936. He was then fast-tracked, on the Trenchard Scheme, through the newly-formed Metropolitan Police Collage in Hendon, the police's answer to Sandhurst, where he was mentored by Joe (later Sir Joseph) Simpson, who was then teaching at the college. JCB's best friend at Hendon was John Gaskain who by chance had also been at Haileybury, though they'd not been close at school as they were in different houses and years. (John Gaskain stayed in the police throughout the war, and was already Assistant Chief Constable of Norfolk by 1942, something JCB felt keenly when he finally left the RAF in 1946 after his second year in hospital as, still, a Detective Inspector).

Policing was a ‘reserved occupation’, so JCB was not allowed to join up in 1939 as he'd wished. But volunteer fire-watching during the Blitz made him determined to do more than help clean up after the Luftwaffe. So when the rules changed to allow 'experienced' pilots to enlist, he hinted he could fly a plane, when he'd merely crossed the channel as a passenger - once. He was accepted by the RAF in March 41.

The first entry in his RAF log book is for 22nd July 1941, the date he started learning to fly in the USA. He stayed there for two years, volunteering (he said he was volunteered) to train pilots as no one else would. He was at Dothan (Alabama) in October 42, and back in England by February 43.

Pilot Officer John Bliss (taken in the USA, July 1941)

JCB did not talk much about his war, but he left a note for his grandson Jack with his RAF 'wings' and USAF wings badge (right) - which his mother Ida wore on her coat for the rest of her life:

"I still have much respect and indeed affection for the American Air Force, who taught us not only to fly but also very good air-discipline, especially how to fly in formation (close to other aircraft), and indeed I suspect that such helped my survival chance!"

He kept his USAF flying jacket, which he and Tom both wore in Alderney till it fell to pieces, and his RAF flying jacket, which the family still have. They also have his dress medals, and two button compasses which were given to airmen to help them find their way home if shot down in enemy territory.

Signed off as 'above average' on 29 06 43, he joined 227 Squadron which had 16 Bristol Beaufighter fighter/bomber aircraft. He'd originally intended to join Fighter Command, but at 28, he said, was considered ‘too old and slow’. As Bomber Command would usually mean very long flights and the carpet bombing of German cities, the Beaufighter was the best compromise available. After ops training with Coastal Command in Cumbria, firing torpedoes at dummy ships in the Solway, he was finally posted to Cyprus with the Marine Expeditionary Force in June 1943.

The flight to Cyprus from Cornwall was touch and go - (JCB told his young son Tom this story in a Jersey Airlines Heron as they taxied down the Alderney runway for take-off). The route out over the Atlantic, to avoid occupied Europe, would take every drop of fuel they could carry, to the extent that after the Beaufighters had tested their magnetos and warmed their engines at the end of the runway, a tanker pulled alongside to top up the tanks to the brim. John and his navigator Norman Rigby's plane was, he said, the only one to arrive in Africa safely - thanks, we assume, to their superior skills - and massive good fortune.

(We suspect this flight is referenced in the book 'The Armed Rovers: Beauforts and Beaufighters Over the Mediterranean' by Roy C Nesbit: 15 aircraft from 144 Squadron set off from Redruth or Portreath on June 12th for Gibralter, but were diverted by bad weather to North Africa, where JCB said he'd landed. One crashed and three more 'developed airframe problems', but eleven made it to Protville on the 18th of June. It's possible that some of these planes were in fact 227 squadron, which was being replenished after a period of especially major losses, because the Mediterranean Beaufighter Wings frequently flew together. If so, then JCB might indeed have been the only one of his squadron to make it - or it could have been a different flight on another day).

JCB is not named in 'Armed Rovers' but various of his comrades are mentioned, including his first Wing Commander, Rusty McKenzie, who remained a friend for the rest of his life. Others who survived the war are Squadron Leader Bill Kemp, an ex Battle of Britain Spitfire Ace who died crop-dusting in Australia in 1983, and 'Cas' de Bounevialle.

There were scores more who lost their lives.

The only other story he told Tom was of a torpedo attack on a ship (we're not sure if there's a reference in the book - there are many which could be, but not all are recorded). He said that unlike the other pilots, his experience made him decide to approach slowly, in spite of the much greater risk from anti-aircraft fire, so that he could maintain full control of his plane. He was glad he did. Others failed to pull out and crashed into the ship or the sea, whereas he hit the target and he and Norman lived to tell the tale. So maybe being 'too old and slow,' and the discipline he acquired flying formation with the USAF saved his life that day - and probably many other times.

Another sortie on 26 01 44, in which Flying Officers Alec Will and Brian Findlay sadly lost their lives, is recorded, with JCB and Rigby named, here. It also appears in JCB's log book ('Alec pranged', is all he says), Armed Rovers, and another book; "Combat Over the Mediterranean: The RAF In Action Against the Germans and Italians Through Rare Archive Photographs" by Chris Goss.

This also mentions another sortie on 27 02 44, in which JCB led an offensive sweep to Messolonghi with three other planes (Bolton / Collins, Davies / Brown, and Hibbert / Parker). Davies' plane was hit, caught fire and ditched killing both crew. The other three went on to sink one ship at least. (We don't know how often JCB led sorties, but being a Flight Lieutenant it was probably quite often, as most pilots were the more junior Flight Officers or Sergeants).

JCB, his Bristol Beaufighter, and with Norman Rigby

Torpedo bombing was considered to be the most dangerous role in the whole of the RAF, because the crews had to fly low and slow straight at a ship, often with multiple guns firing at them. So the attrition of crews was very high indeed. Air Chief Marshall Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris GCB OBE DSO MA RAF writes in the Foreword of Armed Rovers; “At one stage the Beaufighter squadrons were suffering fifty percent casualties.” (Nesbitt says life expectancy over one tour (approx 30 sorties) was just 17%, dropping over a second tour (20 sorties) to only 3%). They sat in the canteen in flight formation, with the crews of four aircraft making eight men at each table. JCB reported that there would typically be two new faces each evening to replace two who had not made it back to base.

So, statistically speaking, catching tuberculosis towards the end of his first tour saved his life, when on 23rd April 44 he was evacuated as 'passenger (very!!!!)' in a DC3 from 4th RAF Hospital Benghasi to 63rd British General Hospital in Cairo.

He spent from spring 1944 to spring 1945 very, very sick in bed mainly in Jerusalem, passing the time by studying law. When peace was declared, he was able to leave for the UK, on 23 02 45, arriving at Bournemouth on the 6th March, only to spend another whole year mostly in bed at the King Edward VII TB hospital in Midhurst. Then he had to face a huge decision - whether to risk having one lung 'collapsed' (taken out of use, but not removed) - a very dangerous procedure in three stages, involving the removal of seven ribs. There's a letter to his parents where he agonises over this; where to go if he survives (South Africa was one option) and what should happen to his estate if he did not. He finally chose to have the op in June 45, and, thankfully, it worked.

One of the occupational therapists at Midhurst had a cousin called Elizabeth Howard, who'd been a nurse and then a Wren, plotting North Sea shipping. John and Elizabeth married on October 18th 1947, and settled in a flat at 38 Great Smith Street. They went on to have three children; Jane (1949), Anne (1951) and Tom (1955). Elizabeth, known as Liberty in the family, wrote an extensive memoir about her life called But No Kings, which the family self-published, (there is a copy in the Wrens Library) and, naturally, much of the book is about JCB.

JCB and EMB, with best man John Gaskain and EMB's cousins Pam and Peggy Heath.

In 1948 JCB led the investigation into the 1945 looting by British troops of Glucksberg Castle, belonging to Grande Duchess Alexandra of Mecklenberg.

The troops had forced the Duchess and the late Grand Duke out of the castle at pistol-point, claiming that they were searching for Himmler. They then smashed open jewel cases, trunks, drawers, and even coffins in the mausoleum, cramming their pockets with jewels and dropping pieces in the hallways and yard as they left. He was able to recover a few of the stolen goods, and The Queen wrote to the Grande Duchess, who was a cousin, to apologise for the troops’ behaviour.

By 1950 JCB had returned to full health and taken up tennis and squash again, but this was still the time of 'pea souper' smogs and his lung struggled when they occurred. Met officers were technically required to live within their own constabulary, but because "the health of this officer is of prime importance," a special dispensation was given for him to live in the eastern half of the building which his parents-in-law had just purchased: Foxhanger in Hurtmore, Godalming, which is possibly a Lutyens house and did boast a Gertrude Jekyll garden. By coincidence it emerged that the last owner before it had been split into two by developers had been JCB's former mentor, now Chief Constable of Surrey and later Commissioner of the Met, Sir Joseph Simpson. (Joe's wife Elizabeth famously bred Labradors with the kennel prefix ‘Foxhanger'). (Tom made a short video about Foxhanger Wood in 2021).

JCB loved working in Foxhanger Wood and the garden where he and EMB grew all their own fruit and veg. He finished his legal training and was 'called to the Bar' (Middle Temple) in 1954, but he chose to remain a detective rather than become a practicing barrister.

In 1959 he was posted to No 3 district as Detective Chief Inspector. One notable case from this period was the 'Antiques Shop Murder' of Elsie May Batten by Edwin Bush in 1961. As, by then, Detective Chief Superintendent, JCB supervised the inquiry, with Detective Superintendent Frank Pollard as lead officer. By chance Detective Sergeant Raymond Dagg had recently returned from the USA where he'd attended a course on their 'Identikit' system. JCB authorised its use for the first time in the UK, allowing PC Arthur Cole to identify and arrest Bush, who was duly hanged (the last to be so in Pentonville Prison, and the second-to-last in London). Characteristically, JCB is seldom mentioned in the histories of his cases, having made sure that his officers took full credit. He himself decried publicity.

By the 1960s, organised crime was increasingly crossing Constabulary boundaries, so Chief Constable Sir Edward Dodd proposed that his mobile Birmingham City Crime Squad should be expanded into a national force - a challenge JCB carried to fruition. He was seconded as Director of Criminal Law to Police College Bramshill in 1962, where a Home Office letter of 13 06 62 shows that he was already working on the Regional Crime Squads, which then had the working title of 'C' Department. By 1963 he was back at The Yard as a Deputy Commander in charge of Criminal Records and Criminal Intelligence while continuing to develop the RCS proposal.

The 600-strong network of nine Regional Crime Squads (soon fictionalised in the BBC TV series 'Softly Softly'), was officially launched in November 1964, with JCB promoted to Commander to become the first National Coordinator. He was now, while still based at New Scotland Yard, technically outside the Met, equivalent to a Chief Constable in rank, and reporting directly to the Home Office, via Sir Edward Dodd who was now Chief Inspector of Constabulary - (so he finally caught up with John Gaskain, who'd gone on to become CC first of Cumberland and Westmoreland, then of Gloucestershire, and finally Inspector of Constabulary and Commandant of the National Police College at Bramshill).

Leonard 'Nipper' Read, who arrested the Krays and became the third NCRCS himself in 1972, wrote in his book (the family has the signed copy he gave to JCB); "John Bliss, my (first) DI from Albany St, was the man who really set up the Crime Squads and got them running, something for which he never received the credit he deserved."

Thanks to JCB's leadership, the Crime Squads were instrumental in breaking two notorious London gangs - the Richardsons in 1966 and the Krays in 1968.

An Observer article on 04 01 1970 says, “Bliss, with Home Office approval, directed the police strategy which smashed the Richardson extortion gang. It worked so well that a similar strategy was used for the Krays."

Widely tipped to succeed Sir Joseph Simpson as Commissioner, on Simpson's death in 1968 JCB supported the appointment of an outsider, Robert Mark, formerly Chief Constable of Leicester, who he knew from his RCS work. Mark, recognising the massive challenges he faced, chose to be only Deputy Commissioner at first. He finally took over when Sir John Waldron retired in 1972, at which point he began rooting out the corruption that had poisoned the Met and so frustrated and angered JCB.

Almost all the corrupt officers were Freemasons, whereas JCB was a Liveryman of the open, educational and philanthropic Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, and thus Free of The City of London. (The Livery Companies and Freemasonry are separate entities. JCB was never a mason - he disapproved of police officers being masons due to the potential for conflicts of interest).

According to The Daily Sketch on March 3rd 1966, JCB was then the most powerful but least known police officer in Britain.

The article praises his tact and diplomacy and calls him ‘imperturbable,' saying senior colleagues had never known him to panic or, 'and this might be considered unusual for a policeman, to swear.'

The nickname 'Hockey Sticks' (he said he'd never heard of this) was, if true, probably due to his public school background - but he was anything but posh. He had a strict moral code and a mind like a razor, but he was hugely charismatic and popular with colleagues of every rank.

He was interested in everything and everyone, cheerfully chatting with people from all walks of life - as at ease with Princes, Earls and Dukes as with bobbies and 'chummies' (police slang for criminals).

In 1967 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Churchill Memorial Trust, spending three months reporting on criminal investigation methods across Europe.

JCB remained a member of the RAF club all his life, and also of the Medico Legal Society.

He was Sidesman at St Nicholas Church in Compton (where his funeral was held), and a keen supporter of the Met Police Rugby Football Club, attending matches most Saturdays.

In the 1969 Honours List he was awarded the Queens Police Medal, and promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner on Jan 1st 1970, when, after leading the RCS for five and a half years he passed the reins to his long-standing No 2; Ian 'Jock' Forbes.

(Note the 'Oh Dear' scribbled on the Observer article from 04 01 70: a typical JCB reaction to journalistic exaggeration).

He spent his final year in the Met leading the Management Services Department (HMSD) from Tintagel House, where he promoted the use of computers and helicopters - against strong initial resistance.

JCB on his retirement in 1971

Retiring on 16th of March 1971 due to age limit, JCB next lent his experience to the Parole Board and Civil Service recruitment panels, when not on Alderney where the family had had a cottage since 1957, fishing, ormering, gardening and walking.

John Bliss died in Guildford on October 19, 1999.

His funeral was well-attended by Met officers, who'd held him in high regard as one of the straightest, most amenable, most innovative and most effective detectives of his era.