Queens Birthday Honours 2010
14 Jun 2010
Royal Honours for Policing
Assistant Chief Constable, Drew Harris has been honoured by Her Majesty the Queen.
He is awarded the OBE in the Birthday Honours List. He is one of five honours to come to policing in Northern Ireland.
Constable Noel Barton who has served the community of Fermanagh and Tyrone for 28 years has received an MBE for services to Policing in partnership working and emergency and event planning.
Queen's Police Medals for services to the community have been awarded to Detective Superintendent Essie Adair, Team Leader of Organised Crime, Acting Chief Inspector Deborah McMaster and retired Detective Chief Superintendent Derek Williamson.
In addition, Mrs Jean Saunderson a widow who has been secretary of the Newtownabbey Police Voluntary Welfare Group for the past 31 years has been awarded an MBE.
OBE
Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris started his career as a Constable in 1983 serving in beat and patrol officer postings in Belfast, Newtownhamilton Armagh and Craigavon. In 1996, he was promoted to Chief Inspector and in 2000, to Superintendent.
In his career he has held some of the most challenging and high profile command positions including Craigavon DCU Commander and head of Special Operations.
As Assistant Chief Constable responsible for Criminal Justice Department, he was instrumental in the introduction of the new district Public Protection Units responsible for the investigation of child and domestic abuse and the management of violent and sexual offenders.
He currently heads the Crime Operations Department where his responsibilities include: Organised Crime, Major Investigation Teams, Intelligence Branch, Special Operation Branch, Analyst Branch, Scientific Support Branch, Serious Crime Review Team, E-Crime and Central Authorisation Bureau. In addition, he also holds the ACPO Hate Crime Portfolio.
His professionalism and experience in overseeing the management of numerous proactive and serious crime investigations has resulted in terrorists and criminals being prosecuted and has undoubtedly saved lives and assisted in maintaining public confidence and providing reassurance.
He is married with four children.
MBE
Constable Noel Barton has served the community in the Fermanagh and Tyrone area for 29 years. He has spent the past 20 years in Operational Planning and has dedicated his time to developing support structures and enhancing contact between the police and the community.
He has been responsible for police deployment in reaction to major incidents including the Omagh bomb and was a key member of the planning team for the subsequent visits to Omagh by Her Majesty the Queen and President Bill Clinton.
He has drawn on the knowledge and experience gained through these and many other events, such as the World Rally Championship (WRC) Rally Ireland events, to build relationships with partner agencies from local government, health planners and emergency services across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Constable Barton has also played a key role in developing the police relationship with the Gaelic Athletic Association, from planning traffic at key matches, to the police operation supporting the victorious return of the All Ireland Winning Teams and has recently acted as an advisor for event safety planning.
Queen's Police Medal
Acting Detective Chief Inspector Deborah McMaster has over 30 years policing experience, with all but one year of her service in front line policing. During her first six years, she was stationed in Andersonstown followed by five years in Lisburn Road.
In 1992 Acting Detective Chief Inspector McMaster was promoted to Sergeant and spent two years in Fermanagh in a Mobile Support Unit (MSU) transferring to a Belfast MSU in 1994.
In 1996 she was appointed as a Detective Sergeant in Belfast CID, serving in a number of CID offices including the regional crime squad before being promoted to Detective Inspector in 2002. She subsequently became the Armagh CID crime manager.
In 2003, she returned to Belfast taking up the role of Detective Inspector in Antrim Road CID, transferring to Crime Operations as a deputy senior investigating officer in 2004. In April 2006, she took charge of a Major Investigation Team as Senior Investigating Officer as Acting Detective Chief Inspector.
She has overseen the investigations into 13 murders. Eight have resulted in prosecutions and four are currently awaiting trial. She has also overseen the investigation into a number of terrorist murders which took place in Londonderry in the early nineties. A file relating to these is presently with the Public Prosecution Service.
Detective Superintendent Essie Adair has spent over 25 years on the front line in the fight against serious and organised crime. During his five years as a team leader in the Headquarters Mobile Support Unit he was involved the in the arrest of terrorist suspects from both Loyalist and Republican elements in Northern Ireland. He has fearlessly played a key role in the prevention and detection of serious crime namely murder and explosions, which resulted in many arrests and prosecutions of terrorist suspects.
For most of his service he has been a Detective with lead responsibility for the prevention and detection of serious and organised crime. Following his promotion to Detective Chief Inspector in 2002, he assumed responsibility for the organised crime squad and restructured the team to focus more vigorously on targeting organised crime given its links to paramilitary organisations.
In his career to date, he has been commended on eight occasions and highly commended on a further nine occasions. His promotion to Detective Superintendent within Organised Crime Branch has allowed him to deliver successful organised crime initiatives. In 2009, he was instrumental in establishing the first victim support network in Northern Ireland for victims of human trafficking.
He has also played a leadership role in investigations across a range of disciplines including kidnapping, robbery, counterfeiting, firearms offences, drugs importation and extortion. His investigative skills and tactical prowess have been pivotal to the significant reduction of extortion in Northern Ireland and significant seizures of counterfeit currency.
Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Derek Williamson recently completed over 29 years of service. As the former head of Serious Crime Branch he was responsible for investigations into homicide, rape, kidnap, indecent images of children and terrorist related offences.
Mr Williamson initially served in a uniform role in South Armagh before becoming a Sergeant responsible for operational planning in Newry. His expertise at deploying resources in a structured and proactive manner resulted in reducing the terrorist threat to the public and police.
He was appointed as Inspector in charge of the South Region press office in 1991 and was responsible for the delivery of media strategies for numerous incidents and policing operations including the first major ‘Drumcree’ operation in Portadown in 1995.
He was appointed as Detective Inspector in a child abuse and rape inquiry unit in 1996 before being promoted to Chief Inspector in 1997 in the Complaints and Discipline Department. In 1998, he was appointed as Chief Inspector Operations in Armagh and then to Detective Chief Inspector in Newry in 2002.
In 2004, Mr Williamson was promoted to Detective Superintendent, Senior Investigating Officer in Serious Crime Branch. In 2007 Mr Williamson was promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent and was selected to oversee the handover of lead responsibility for national security intelligence from the police to the Security Service.
Detective Chief Superintendent Williamson has received two highly commended awards and two commended awards in recognition of his work. He is also the recipient of the Police LSGC Medal, RUC Service Medal and Queen’s Jubilee Medal. He is married and has three children.
MBE for police welfare volunteer
A widow who has been secretary of the Newtownabbey Police Voluntary Welfare Group for the past 31 years has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to police welfare.
Mrs Jean Saunderson (69) whose policeman husband was killed in a road traffic collision in 1975, has selflessly devoted most of her life on a voluntary basis to the welfare of police families.
In the mid-1970s, as a growing number of police officers were injured or killed as a result of terrorism, Mrs Saunderson was one of the first to volunteer her services to her local police welfare group in Newtownabbey.
Her role involves working with bereaved police families, dependants and pensioners, as well as injured and retired officers. For more than 30 years, Mrs Saunderson has been a friend, counsellor, visitor and helper to hundreds of members of the broader police family in times of need.
Mrs Saunderson is also a founder member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Widows’ Association in 1980.
When asked about the award Mrs Saunderson said: “I was very much surprised but highly delighted. We have a very good welfare group and I see this as an honour for all of us.”
