Chief Officer John Bonney

John joined London Fire Brigade in 1981 having obtained an Honours degree in Politics from York University. Rising through the ranks he was heavily involved in officer training and the development of competence based standards for incident commanders during the 1990s, completing a research topic on effective team performance as part of his Brigade Command Course. This interest in incident management research continues to date and has led to the publication of a number of articles and collaborative work with other public and private sector companies.

John holds a Master in Business Administration and is a member of the Chartered Management Institute. He has also held the position of National Secretary of the Association of Principal Fire Officers for the past few years, an organisation which promotes and protects the interests of principal fire officers as an employee group. As a result of this, he plays a national role in policy formulation and advocating on behalf of Principal Officer colleagues.

Since 1997 John has been a Deputy Chief Fire Officer, serving first in Gloucestershire and then joining Hampshire in 2001. He took up the role of Chief Officer of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service in July 2004. John was awarded The Queen's Fire Service Medal in June 2007. He is married to Caroline and they have a young daughter.