John Carter

Who was John Carter?

Lieutenant-Colonel John Fillis Carré Carter CBE was Assistant Commissioner "A" of the London Metropolitan Police, responsible for administration and uniformed policing, from 1 November 1938 to September 1940.

Carter was the son of a Captain in the Royal Engineers. He was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Having passed out as Queen's Cadet, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant into the Indian Staff Corps on 28 July 1900. He served in Waziristan in 1901–1902 and was seconded to the Indian Police Service in Burma in 1905. He was promoted Lieutenant on 28 October 1902, and Captain on 28 July 1909. In the First World War he served as a GSO2 on the Imperial General Staff, reaching the rank of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel and being mentioned in despatches twice. In 1915 he married Gwendolyn Georges; they had a son and a daughter.

He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919 and was appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner on 24 October 1922. In 1933 he took command of No.2 District, based at Paddington.