Past RUC and PSNI chief constables join mourners at a funeral service to commemorate the former senior police officer Alan McQuillan

​Mr McQuillan, who died on Monday October 6 aged 70, had joined the RUC in the 1970s after he graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast, rising up the ranks before leaving what had by then become the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the rank of assistant chief constable.

He later became head of the Assets Recovery Agency, until it was dissolved in 2008.

Mourners at St Columba’s Church of Ireland in Knock yesterday included the former chief constables Sir Hugh Orde and Sir Ronnie Flanagan, and the PSNI deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton (the chief constable Jon Boutcher was unable to attend because he is in America).

Also in attendance was the former MP for North Down Lady Sylvia Hermon, who is the widow of the former RUC chief constable Sir John Hermon, the former senior PSNI officers Duncan McCausland and Peter Sheridan, and the former SDLP leader and Foyle MP Mark Durkan.

The Catholic priest Father Aidan Troy, who has served in Rome, Paris and the Ardoyne, read a lesson from Ecclesiastes.

The address at the service was given by the minister of St Columba’s, the Reverend Chancellor John R Auchmuty.

Mr McQuillan’s wife Heather and son and daughter Jane and Andrew were among the congregation, with other family members.

Andrew had issued a tribute to his father on social media after his death, saying:

‘Passing of Alan McQuillan OBE

‘Former PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan OBE has passed away peacefully following a four year battle with prostrate cancer.

‘Despite graduating as an astrophysicist with no policing career plans, a series of events and his overwhelming care for others took him into policing.

‘Alan cared deeply about protecting and helping every community across Northern Ireland, even when this meant personal sacrifices

‘In his role as a senior police officer, he was unafraid to take hard decisions to achieve peace for everyone, even when the consequence would be as significant as collapsing the government.

‘His work in setting up and running the Assets Recovery Agency (now within the National Crime Agency) hammered major blows to paramilitaries and organised crime across Northern Ireland, the rest of United Kingdom and internationally.

‘His actions stopped hundreds of millions of pounds from being used to harm and murder people by criminals and terrorists.

‘A true professional, with integrity, honesty and a sense of fairness which was evident in every aspect of his career; a likeable and popular man who was always ready to provide advice and guidance to all who needed and asked for his support, even long after his retirement.

‘Alan is survived by his loving wife Heather, daughter Jane and son Andrew who ask for privacy at this time.’

UUP MLA Jon Burrows, a former senior officer in the PSNI, was present at the service on Monday. He had previously posted on X: “I am very sad to hear of the passing of Alan McQuillan OBE.

"Alan was a former Assistant Chief Constable in the RUCGC & PSNI & former Director of the Assets Recovery Agency.

“A towering intellect, a brilliant communicator & a fearless public servant.”

Other former senior police officers who were present at Monday’s service for Alan McQuillan included Jim Gamble, who now works in international policing. Mr Gamble had posted on X at the time of news of Mr McQuillan’s death under he address @JimGamble_INEQE: ‘So sorry to hear that former ACC Alan McQuillan passed away last night. RIP’.

The former DUP MP Peter Weir had said then on X: ‘Sorry to hear of the passing of former Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan OBE. Condolences to his family’.