Unit Commander sees son graduate with flying colours
An Operational Unit Commander watched his son graduate to become a CNC officer last week.
Insp Mike Wilkinson, the Operational Unit Commander for Dungeness CNC, attended a graduation ceremony with a difference last week, watching his son Tom be sworn in as a full constable as well as picking up a special achievement award.
The graduation ceremony, which took place in Abingdon on Friday (13/3), saw 21 people graduate to become constables with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
As well as graduating their training course, awards are also issued to those students who have excelled in their course in a range of subjects, including an endeavour award which is voted for by other student officers, a firearms achievement award, and an excellence award.
PC Tom Wilkinson was given the course academic award for his achievement in scoring the highest in five knowledge evaluations throughout the course on English law. He will now join the Dungeness Operational Command Unit.
Insp Wilkinson, who served with Gloucestershire Constabulary before joining CNC, was present at the ceremony both as the Operation Unit Commander for Dungeness and to see his son graduate with flying colours.
Mike said: “I’m extremely proud to have Tom join the CNC and stop being a burden on my purse strings! It’ll be strange having him as one of my officers and have him call me sir not dad, but seriously he has made a good career choice and did extremely well in training.”
Tom said: “I’m very proud to be part of an organisation that is there to protect part of the national infrastructure of this country. The skills I now have as a counter terrorist police officer are recognised to be part of the wider police family. Having my Dad as my boss maybe a little harder to deal with though!”
The 21 new constables will be posted to nuclear sites across the UK, including Sizewell, Dungeness, Torness and Sellafield. They have all completed an intensive 17 week training course to allow them to graduate as fully qualified Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs).
Deputy Chief Constable Simon Chesterman said: “It was great to see the latest course of probationary constable’s graduate before being posted to one of our sites across the UK.
“The training course to become a CNC officer is very intensive as they are not just graduating as constables but as fully authorised firearms officers. Their training has included sections on personal safety training, personal protective equipment, physical fitness, radiological awareness and, of course, extensive firearms training in both range use and tactical options.
“I am always proud to see a new lot of recruits graduating and wish them all the best in their future CNC career.”
Pictured are PC Tom Wilkinson receiving his award from Deputy Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, and Tom with his father, Insp Mike Wilkinson. Pictures taken by and reproduced with the kind permission of Philip Nash.