Chris Parry (Royal Navy officer)

Rear Admiral Christopher John Parry, CBE is a former Royal Navy officer who was the first Chair of the UK Government's Marine Management Organisation until 2011. He is now a strategic forecaster and risk expert.

Chris Parry
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Navy
Years of service1972–c.2008
RankRear Admiral
Commands heldAmphibious Task Group
HMS Fearless
HMS Gloucester
Battles/warsFalklands War
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire
Mentioned in Despatches

Education

Parry was educated at The Portsmouth Grammar School, Jesus College, Oxford, where he read Modern History, and the University of Reading (PhD).[1]

He joined the Royal Navy as a seaman officer in 1972 and then became an observer in the Fleet Air Arm in 1979. He was mentioned in despatches for his actions during the Falklands War for his part in rescuing 16 SAS troopers from Fortuna Glacier in South Georgia and for the detection and disabling of the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe.[2] He commanded the air defence destroyer HMS Gloucester and the Maritime Warfare Centre.[1] He became commanding officer of HMS Fearless in January 2000.[3] As a commodore, he was Director Operational Capability in the Ministry of Defence (2000 - 2003) and then Commander Amphibious Task Group, from September 2003.[4] He was Director General, Development, Concepts and Doctrine from 2005 to 2008.[5]

Recent activities

Since June 2008, Parry has worked in the private sector and as a writer, broadcaster and speaker.[6]

On 12 June 2010, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he described the planning for the UK's 2006 deployment of 3,300 troops to Helmand Province in Afghanistan as flawed, relying too much on lessons from Borneo, Malaya and Northern Ireland. The subsequent BBC News article quotes him as saying that senior commanders had obdurately resisted "ditching the lessons from the past", preferring these to the "radical and progressive ideas" which were needed.[7]

Works
  • Parry, Chris (2012). Down South: A Falklands War Diary. Viking. ISBN 978-0241959626.
  • Parry, Chris (2014). Super Highway: Sea Power in the 21st Century. Elliott & Thompson. ISBN 978-1908739841.

References
  1. "Rear Admiral Chris Parry". Compliance leadership forum. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  2. "No. 48999". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1982. p. 7422.
  3. "Captains commanding Royal Navy Warships" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  4. "Senior Royal Navy appointments" (PDF). Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  5. "Russian sanctions: who will blink first?" (PDF). Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  6. Chris Parry (23 November 2008). "Promising new waters for al-Qa'ida?". London: The Independent. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  7. "UK's Helmand province mission was 'flawed'". BBC. 12 June 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
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