John E. Heymer
former police officer, writer on Spontaneous Human Combustion
John Edward Heymer is a British former police officer and author who has written extensively on spontaneous human combustion (SHC).
Heymer was born in Bow, East London, in 1934 and went to South Wales at the age of 16 to become a coal miner. He returned to London two years later for National Service and spent three years in the Royal Fusiliers. He then returned to work as a miner but left after being injured during a roof fall. He joined the Monmouthshire Constabulary and spent a few years as a police constable on patrol, followed by a few years in the photography department at Police Headquarters in Croesyceiliog. He then became a Scenes of Crimes Officer and Crime Prevention Officer.
Heymer describes himself as an autodidact, with a lifelong passion for knowledge, and has written that he is not afraid to pursue this into areas where other people might fear ridicule or contempt.
He was a gradual convert to belief in SHC, mainly as a result of his attendance as scene of crime officer at the apparent death by SHC of an elderly man in Ebbw Vale (Henry Thomas).
Heymer believes that SHC is not a supernatural phenomenon, but a rare natural phenomenon that has not yet been examined sufficiently (mainly due to the difficulty presented by the results of SHC).
He has published articles about SHC in New Scientist and Fortean Times, and has appeared on the BBC television programmes Newsnight and QED ("The Burning Question").
The public source identifies “John E. Heymer” as former police officer, writer on Spontaneous Human Combustion. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Heymer and former.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6230779. VIAF identifies the subject as 73682027. The Library of Congress control number is no2008166379. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “John E. Heymer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.