Richard Stanford (British Army officer)

Last updated

Richard Stanford
Sandwell Metropolitan Council receive ERS Silver Award (cropped).jpg
Stanford in 2015
Born1966 (age 55–56)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1987–2021
Rank Major General
Commands held Support Command
1st Battalion, Welsh Guards
Battles/wars The Troubles
Iraq War
Awards Companion of the Order of the Bath
Member of the Order of the British Empire

Major General Richard James Aethelstan Stanford, CB , MBE (born 1966) is a retired senior British Army officer who served as General Officer Commanding Support Command from 2015 to 2017.

Contents

Early life and education

Stanford was born in 1966 in Luton, England. He joined the British Army after finishing school, and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for officer training. He later attended Cranfield University, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1999, and studied with the Open University, completing a Master of Business Administration degree in 2003. [1]

Career

Military career

Stanford was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1987, [2] and saw active service during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, for which he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in October 1993. [3] He went on to become commanding officer of the 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards, in which capacity he was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina on peace keeping duties in 2006. [4] He was the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting and commanded the parade in Trooping the Colour 2007. [5]

In 2009 Stanford was succeeded by Rupert Thorneloe just prior to the battalion's deployment to Afghanistan; Thorneloe was killed in action during Operation Panther's Claw. Stanford saw active service during the Iraq War, where he served as an advisor to the Head of the Iraqi Army in 2009. [6] He became Chief of Joint Fires and Influence Branch at Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in March 2012, [7] and General Officer Commanding Support Command in June 2015. [8] He became Senior British Loan Services Officer, Oman in October 2017. [9]

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2021 New Year Honours. [10]

Forestry Commission

Stanford became the Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission in August 2021. [11]

Personal life

Stanford has been married to his wife Fiona since 1995; they have a son and a daughter. [1] Fiona wrote the book Don't Say Goodbye: Our Heroes and the Families They Leave Behind, which is a compilation of her experience as a military wife and stories of wives, girlfriends and children of other Welsh Guards deployed to Afghanistan. [12] He currently holds the appointment of Regimental Lieutenant Colonel of the Welsh Guards. [13]

Related Research Articles

Welsh Guards Infantry regiment of the British Army

The Welsh Guards, part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V. Shortly after the regiment's formation, it was deployed to France where it took part in the fighting on the Western Front until the end of the war in November 1918. During the inter-war years, the regiment undertook garrison duties in the United Kingdom, except 1929–1930 when it deployed to Egypt, and late 1939 when it deployed to Gibraltar.

Peter Inge, Baron Inge Chief of the General Staff and Defence Staff; head of the British Army (1935–2022)

Field Marshal Peter Anthony Inge, Baron Inge, was a senior British Army officer. He was the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, from 1992 to 1994 and then served as Chief of the Defence Staff before retiring in 1997. Early in his military career he saw action during the Malayan Emergency and in Northern Ireland and later in his career he provided advice to the British Government during the Bosnian War.

Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank

Field Marshal Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, is a retired senior officer of the British Army who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1994 to 1997 and Chief of the Defence Staff from 1997 until his retirement in 2001.

General Sir Charles Redmond "Reddy" Watt, is a retired senior British Army officer who was Commander-in-Chief, Land Command. Between 2011 - 2018, he was also the Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Michael Rose (British Army officer) British Army general (born 1940)

General Sir Hugh Michael Rose,, often known as Mike Rose, is a retired British Army general. As well as Special Air Service Regiment commanding officer, he was Commander UNPROFOR Bosnia in 1994 during the Yugoslav Wars.

Robin Brims British Army general

Lieutenant General Robin Vaughan Brims, is a retired British Army officer. He was Commander of the Field Army at Land Command from 2005 to 2007.

Brigadier James Joseph "Joe" Kingstone DSO & Bar MC CBE, DL was an officer in the British Army during the First and Second World Wars.

Nick Parker British Army general from 1973 to 2013

General Sir Nicholas Ralph Parker, is a former British Army officer who served as Commander Land Forces until December 2012.

Jacko Page Retired British Army Officer

Lieutenant General Jonathan David "Jacko" Page, is a retired senior British Army officer.

Rupert Thorneloe British Army soldier

Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Stuart Michael Thorneloe, MBE was a British Army officer who was killed in action on 1 July 2009 near Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Thorneloe is the highest-ranking British Army officer to have been killed in action since Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones's death in 1982 during the Falklands War.

Barney White-Spunner British Army general

Lieutenant General Sir Barnabas William Benjamin White-Spunner, is a retired British Army officer, who was subsequently executive chairman of the Countryside Alliance until 2016. He is an author, a director of Burstock Ltd. and was appointed chairman of the advisory board of UK Fisheries Ltd in October 2018.

James Everard

General Sir James Rupert Everard, is a retired senior British Army officer who served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Lieutenant General Richard Arthur David Applegate CB OBE is a former Quartermaster-General and Master-General of the Ordnance to the Army. He left the British Army in October 2010 and is now a Director of Eagle Strategic Consulting Ltd.

Nick Carter (British Army officer) Kenyan-born senior British Army officer

General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter, is a Kenyan-born former senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Defence Staff from June 2018 to November 2021.

Richard Barrons British Army officer (born 1959)

General Sir Richard Lawson Barrons, is a retired British Army officer. He was Commander Joint Forces Command from April 2013 until his retirement in April 2016.

George Norton Retired British Army officer

Lieutenant General Sir George Pemberton Ross Norton is a retired British Army officer. He was the UK Military Representative to NATO. He is now Commandant Royal College of Defence Studies.

Mark Carleton-Smith British Army general

General Sir Mark Alexander Popham Carleton-Smith, is a senior British Army officer. He served as Chief of the General Staff from June 2018 to June 2022, succeeding General Sir Nick Carter. He was succeeded by General Sir Patrick Sanders. He previously served as Director Special Forces and commanded 22 Special Air Service Regiment.

Stuart Skeates British Army officer (born 1966)

Lieutenant General Stuart Richard Skeates, is a British Army officer. He served as Deputy Commander of JFC Brunssum from December 2018 to December 2021. He also previously served as Standing Joint Force Commander from 2015 to 2018.

Patrick Sanders (British Army officer)

General Sir Patrick Nicholas Yardley Monrad Sanders, is a senior British Army officer serving as Chief of the General Staff since June 2022.

Rupert Jones (British Army officer)

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "Stanford, Maj. Gen. Richard James Æthelstan, (born 10 Aug. 1966), General Officer Commanding Regional Command, since 2015". Who's Who 2020 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2019. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U284125. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4.
  2. ↑ "No. 50965". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 1987. p. 7683.
  3. ↑ "No. 53453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 October 1993. p. 16387.
  4. ↑ "After 15 years UK military presence, Welsh Guards are last to leave Bosnia". 30 March 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  5. ↑ "Officers on duty". Trooping the Colour.
  6. ↑ "Uncertainty over UK Iraq legacy". BBC. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "Up and outs". Defence View Points. July 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Senior Army appointment". The Telegraph. London. 16 May 2015. p. 30.
  9. ↑ "Senior Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "No. 63218". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2020. p. N2.
  11. ↑ "Richard Stanford, Chief Executive". www.forestryengland.uk.
  12. ↑ Stanford, Fiona (2011). Don't Say Goodbye: Our heroes and the families they leave behind. Hachette UK. ISBN   9781444716375.
  13. ↑ "A list of all current Honorary colonels in the British Army" (PDF). GOV.UK.
Military offices
Preceded by GOC Regional Command
2015–2017		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.