Dorset police officer honoured with MBE

A retired Dorset police officer was recently awarded an MBE for services to international policing.

Tony Nott, from Wareham, received the honour from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace for his international police work in Irag and Palestine.

After receiving his MBE from Her Majesty the Queen, Tony Nott said, “Not only am I extremely proud to receive this honour, but I am also delighted for my family, especially my wife who has had to endure nearly six years of loneliness.”

After transferring from the Metropolitan Police to Dorset Police in 1976, Tony worked as a uniformed officer in Weymouth and as a detective in Portland. He then went on to serve as a detective chief inspector in Bournemouth and a detective superintendent at force headquarters in Winfrith.

While serving as a detective superintendent, Tony led the British forensic team in Kosovo in 2000. Then, between October 2001 and January 2004, Tony worked for the United Nations as a regional police commander in Northern Bosnia, as well as working for a year as the senior advisor to the European Union Police Commissioner on Major and Organised Crime for the EU Police Mission in Bosnia.

Between May 2005 and May 2006 Tony was based in the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad while he served as the Deputy Chief Police Advisor to the British Policing Mission in Iraq. In this role, Tony worked within a US and UK military team facilitating the Iraqi Police in their organisational restructuring. He also provided assistance to the Iraqi Police in their arrest and interview of suspects involved in the high profile kidnap and murder of Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan.

Between February 2007 and December 2008 Tony was based at the US Consulate in Jerusalem where he served as the Civilian Police Advisor to Lieutenant General Keith Dayton of the US Army.

Tony continued, “I am very privileged to have worked with some very talented and dedicated people, and have great satisfaction in being able to play a small part in the very important peace process in the Middle East.

“To this end I have been able to use the training and experience I had with Dorset Police to the greater good.”