Nick Welch | |
---|---|
Born | circa 1964 [1] |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service | British Army |
Years of service | 1984–2018 |
Rank | Major General |
Commands | 7 Armoured Brigade 1st Battalion, Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment |
Battles / wars | Bosnian War War in Afghanistan |
Awards | Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service |
Nicholas Welch (born c. 1964) is a retrospectively dismissed British Army major general who served as the Assistant Chief of the General Staff from 2015 to 2018. In March 2021 he became the highest ranked British officer to be convicted at a court martial in over 200 years. [2]
Welch was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment on 20 April 1984. [3] His deployments included Berlin, Northern Ireland and Belize. [4]
Welch became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment in 2002 and, [5] having been promoted to colonel on 30 June 2006, [6] he became commander of 7 Armoured Brigade based in Bergen-Hohne, Germany in March 2009. [7] He was deployed with 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade as the deputy commander of Regional Command (South West) in Afghanistan in September 2011. [8]
He briefly served as Deputy Director of Strategic Studies in the Ministry of Defence before becoming Director Army Division at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in August 2012. [9] He went on to be Chief of Staff, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in July 2014, [7] and Assistant Chief of the General Staff in December 2015. [10] [11]
Welch retired from the Army with the rank of Major General in April 2018. [12]
Welch was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service for service in the former Yugoslavia in March 2005. [13] He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours [14] and promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours. [15] The award of the OBE was annulled and cancelled in August 2023. [16]
After leaving the army, Welch was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Arts University Bournemouth in 2018. He was later dismissed from the role in 2021 following his conviction for fraud. [17] [18]
In 2017 the Army commenced an investigation into Welch of an improper use of an education allowance. [19] The allowance was designed to allow Welch and wife to live in London closer to his role at the Ministry of Defence while their children attended boarding school in Dorset. [20] However records showed that Welch's wife spent the majority of her time at the couple's cottage in Dorset rather than London. [21] At a four week court martial held in March 2021, Welch has found guilty of dishonestly and fraudulently claiming £48,000 of school fees from 2015 to 2017 and was sentenced to 21 months in a civilian prison. [22] [23] He was also retrospectively dismissed from the army. [24]
It was reported that Welch was the most senior Army officer to face a court martial since 1815. [25]
General Sir Michael David Jackson, was a British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1970, with which he served two of his three tours of duty in Northern Ireland. On his first, he was present as an adjutant at the events of the Ballymurphy massacre (1971), where eleven unarmed civilians were shot dead by British troops, and then at Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing fourteen. On his second, he was a company commander in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint ambush (1979), when the IRA killed 18 soldiers with two roadside bombs, the British Army's heaviest single loss of life during the Troubles. He was assigned to a staff post at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1982 before assuming command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, in 1984. Jackson was posted to Northern Ireland for the third time, as a brigade commander, in the early 1990s.
Lieutenant General Arundell David Leakey, is a former British Army officer. He was Director General of the European Union Military Staff in the Council of the European Union, Brussels. In 2010 he was appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, a role he held until February 2018.
General Sir Hugh Michael Rose,, often known as Sir Mike Rose, is a retired British Army general. As well as Special Air Service Regiment commanding officer, he was Commander United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994 during the Yugoslav Wars.
General Sir Alfred Dudley Ward,, commonly known as Sir Dudley Ward, was a senior British Army officer who saw distinguished active service during the Second World War and later became Governor of Gibraltar. Serving as an ordinary soldier for three years before being sent for officer training in 1926, slow peacetime career progression saw Ward achieving the rank of captain only in 1937. However, the Second World War, which began just two years later, allowed him to demonstrate his high ability as both a staff officer and a commander of troops in the field. Receiving command of the 4th Infantry Division at the unusually young age of 39 years and 3 months old, he led the division in Italy and Greece from 1944 to 1945. After the war ended in 1945, Ward went on to hold several staff and field appointments at the highest levels, including Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff (DCIGS) and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine, retiring as a full general in 1965.
General John Nicholas Reynolds Houghton, Baron Houghton of Richmond, is a retired senior British Army officer and former Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) of the British Armed Forces. He was appointed CDS in July 2013, following the retirement of General Sir David Richards. He served as Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, the Green Howards in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and later became Commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland. He deployed as Senior British Military Representative and Deputy Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq during the Iraq War. Later, he became Chief of Joint Operations at Permanent Joint Headquarters and served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff until assuming the position of CDS. Houghton retired from the British Army in July 2016, and was succeeded as CDS by Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach.
General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, is a retired senior British Army officer and member of the House of Lords. He was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009.
General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter, is a retired senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Defence Staff from June 2018 to November 2021.
Lieutenant General Sir William Pasfield Oliver, was a senior British Army officer who served as Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1955 to 1957.
Lieutenant General Sir John Gordon Lorimer, is a retired senior British Army officer, who served as the Chief of Joint Operations and the Defence Senior Adviser to the Middle East and North Africa. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man on 29 September 2021.
The Assistant Chief of the General Staff and Army Chief of Staff is a senior role in the British Army.
General Sir Mark Alexander Popham Carleton-Smith, is a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the General Staff from June 2018 to June 2022. He previously served as Director Special Forces and commanded 22 Special Air Service Regiment.
Richard Morgan Llewellyn, is a retired senior British Army officer. He was general officer commanding, Wales District from 1987 to 1990, and chief of staff at HQ Land Forces from 1990 to 1991. Upon retirement the army, he was ordained in the Church of England and is currently Welsh Vice-Patron of the War Memorials Trust.
Major General David Mark Cullen, is a senior British Army officer. He served as the Assistant Chief of the General Staff from 2013 to 2015.
Major-General George Neville Wood was a senior British Army officer who fought during the First and Second World War, commanding the 25th Indian Infantry Division during the Burma campaign.
Major General Rupert Timothy Herbert Jones is a retired senior British Army officer, who served as the Standing Joint Force Commander from November 2018 to July 2021.
Lieutenant General Richard Edward Nugee, CB, CVO, CBE is a retired senior British Army officer. He served in several senior roles including Defence Services Secretary (2015–2016) and Chief of Defence People (2016–2020), before ending his career leading a review into climate change policy in the Ministry of Defence between March 2020 and May 2021.
Lieutenant-General Alexander James Sanson "Sandy" Storrie, is a former senior British Army officer who served as Deputy Commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General Sir Nicholas Robert Macrae Borton,, is a retired British Army officer, who served as commander of NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps from 2021 to 2024.
General Gwyn Jenkins, is a senior Royal Marines officer, who served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff from August 2022 to June 2024. He was concurrently appointed Commandant General Royal Marines in November 2022.