Philip Wilkinson (British Army officer)
Colonel Philip Roy Wilkinson OBE (born October 1948)[1] is a retired British Army officer who has served as the Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner since August 2021. He was re-elected in May 2024.
Wilkinson was educated at Sandhurst, from where on 25 July 1969 he was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery.[2] He was a Major in that regiment by 1982[3] and later served in the Commando and Parachute Brigades and the Special Forces. He retired from the British Army in 1998[4] and was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) the same year.[5]
Wilkinson continued to work in security roles, and by 2020 was working in Somalia for the Minister for Internal Security. This was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and he returned to Wiltshire and began to write a book of memoirs, Sharpening the Weapons of Peace,[6] while becoming a senior research fellow at King's College London.[7]
Wilkinson stood successfully for the Conservative Party as Wiltshire's police and crime commissioner at the by-election on 19 August 2021,[8] after the May 2021 election had failed to elect a qualified candidate.[9] He was re-elected for a further term of four years in May 2024.[10]
Honours
[edit]- December 1982: Member of the Order of the British Empire, for distinguished service in Northern Ireland[3]
- June 1998: Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in the 1998 Birthday Honours[5]
Notes
[edit]- ^ "Philip Roy Wilkinson", company-information.service.gov.uk, accessed 8 May 2025
- ^ "No. 44923". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 22 August 1969. p. 8768.
- ^ a b "No. 49196". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 13 December 1982. p. 16352.
- ^ "Philip Wilkinson holds Wiltshire PCC position", BBC News, 4 May 2024
- ^ a b "No. 55155". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 15 June 1998. p. 6.
- ^ "Philip Wilkinson: My unexpected journey to becoming the Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon", Conservative Home, 9 September 2021
- ^ Matthew McLaughlin, "Conservative PCC candidate on the election ahead in Wiltshire", Gazette and Herald (Wiltshire), 7 July 2021, accessed 8 May 2024
- ^ Terence Herbert, Certificate of result - second count, Police and Crime Commissioner election, 19 August 2021, Wiltshire Council, 20 August 2021, accessed 8 May 2024
- ^ Benjamin Paessler, "Wiltshire PCC election re-run: Updates as votes are counted" Salisbury Journal, 20 August 2021, accessed 8 May 2024
- ^ Statement of Persons Nominated, April 2024; Wiltshire PCC election result, May 2024, accessed 9 May 2024
External links
[edit]- Philip Wilkinson, choosemypcc.org.uk
- Living people
- 1948 births
- Academics of King's College London
- British Parachute Regiment officers
- Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
- Police and crime commissioners in England
- Royal Artillery officers
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- People from Wiltshire
- 20th-century British Army personnel
- Conservative Party police and crime commissioners
- Fellows of King's College London