John Ferguson

Who was John Ferguson?

Major Sir John Frederick Ferguson CBE QPM CStJ DL was a senior British police officer.

Ferguson was the son of a Major in the Indian Army. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen. He passed out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Durham Light Infantry on 14 February 1912 and was immediately posted to the North-West Frontier of India. During the First World War he remained in India until 1916, when he received a temporary Captaincy and spent the rest of the war in Mesopotamia and Palestine.

He served as regimental adjutant until 1917 and again from 1919 to 1922. He attended Staff College in 1925. He served as a GSO3 with the Shanghai Defence Force from 24 January 1927 to 17 December 1927. He was Brigade Major of the 14th Infantry Brigade from 10 March 1928 to 15 April 1931. During this period he received a Brevet promotion to Major in 1930, and received the regimental rank in 1931. He attended the Royal Naval College in 1932.

Ferguson retired from the Army in 1933 and joined the Metropolitan Police, being appointed Chief Constable in the Commissioner's Office on 1 November 1933. On 1 September 1935 he was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner and took command of No.4 District. From 1 September 1938 to 1939 he was Commandant of the Metropolitan Police College. He rejoined the Army in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II as a GSO1 at the War Office, but soon returned to the Metropolitan Police in September 1940, as he had reached the maximum age for reserve officers.