Heymer was born in Bow, East London, in 1934 and went to South Wales at the age of 16 to become a coalminer. 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.[1]
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).[2][3]
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).[4][5]
In 1996, he published a book entitled The Entrancing Flame, which was about his personal experience of dealing with the results of SHC and attempted to analyse the phenomenon.[1]
Notes
1 2 John E. Heymer, The Entrancing Flame: Facts of Spontaneous Human Combustion, London: Little, Brown, 1996, ISBN0-316-87694-1
↑ John Michell and Robert J.M. Rickard, Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special, London: Rough Guides, 2000, ISBN1-85828-589-5, p. 158.
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