Kenneth Bloomfield

Sir Kenneth Percy Bloomfield (born 15 April 1931) is a former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service who was later a member of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains and for a time Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner. In addition to this, he has held a variety of public sector posts in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Early and personal life

Kenneth Bloomfield was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland to English parents in 1931. He grew up close to Neill's Hill railway station. Between the years of 1943 and 1949, he attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and later went on to read Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford. He is married with two children. On 12 September 1988, he and his wife were the targets of an IRA attack on their home in Crawfordsburn, County Down; neither Bloomfield nor his wife were injured in the blast.

Public sector career

Having joined the Civil Service in 1952, Bloomfield was appointed Permanent Secretary to the power sharing executive in 1974. After the collapse of the executive, he went on to become Permanent Secretary for the Department of the Environment and the Department of Economic Development, and finally Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service on 1 December 1984. In that capacity he was the most senior advisor to successive Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and other Ministers on a wide range of issues. He retired from the post in April 1991.