Sir James Haughton was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1914. In 1935 he applied to join Oldham Borough Police and Rochdale Borough Police. On both occasions he was turned down being half an inch too short, the height restriction being 5′ 11″.

He successfully applied to join Birmingham City Police and spent two years on ‘the beat’ in Harborne. He was then transferred to the CID as a Detective Constable and was nicknamed, ‘Sunny Jim’ by his colleagues. By 1950 he was a Detective Inspector and quickly rose to the rank of Detective Chief Superintendent in 1959. He remained as head of the CID in Birmingham for a further two and a half years. During that time he came up with the idea of ‘Regional Crime Squads’ that was quickly adapted throughout the UK.

In 1961 he was appointed as Assistant Chielf Constable (Crime), Staffordshire Police and in 1965 appointed as Chief Constable of Liverpool City Police, and in 1967, Chief Constable of Liverpool & Bootle Constabulary.

He became Chief Constable of the newly formed Merseyside Police on 1st April 1974 and in 1975 he was appointed as Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary. He was succeeded by Sir Kennth Gordon Oxford.

He retired in 1977 and died in 2000 aged,85yrs.

A very successful Chief Constable who has not been remembered anywhere on the internet, sad.

Brian Starkey