Richard Stanford (British Army officer)

Major-General Richard James Aethelstan Stanford MBE is a British Army officer who once served as General Officer Commanding Support Command.

Richard Stanford
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1987–present
RankMajor General
Battles/warsThe Troubles
Iraq War
AwardsMember of the Order of the British Empire

Military career

Stanford was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1987[1] 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.[2] He went on to become commanding officer of 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards in which capacity he was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina on peace keeping duties in 2006.[3] He was the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting and commanded the parade in Trooping the Colour 2007.[4] In 2009 he was succeeded by Rupert Thorneloe just prior to the battalion's deployment to Afghanistan and the latter was killed in action during Operation Panther's Claw. He saw active service during the Iraq War when he served as an advisor to the Head of the Iraqi Army in 2009.[5] He became Chief of Joint Fires and Influence Branch at Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in March 2012[6] and General Officer Commanding Support Command in June 2015.[7] He became Senior British Loan Services Officer, Oman in October 2017.[8]

Personal life

Stanford has been married to his wife Fiona since 1995 and they have a son and a daughter. Fiona Stanford 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 while the men were deployed to Afghanistan.[9] He currently holds the appointment of Regimental Lieutenant Colonel of the Welsh Guards.[10]

References
  1. "No. 50965". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 1987. p. 7683.
  2. "No. 53453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 October 1993. p. 16387.
  3. "After 15 years UK military presence, Welsh Guards are last to leave Bosnia". 30 March 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  4. "Officers on duty". Trooping the Colour.
  5. "Uncertainty over UK Iraq legacy". BBC. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  6. "Up and outs". Defence View Points. July 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  7. "Senior Army appointment". The Telegraph. 16 May 2015. p. 30.
  8. "Senior Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  9. Stanford, Fiona (2011). Don't Say Goodbye: Our heroes and the families they leave behind. Hachette UK.
  10. "A list of all current Honorary colonels in the British Army" (PDF). GOV.UK.
Military offices
Preceded by
Robert Nitsch		 GOC Regional Command
2015–2017		 Succeeded by
Duncan Capps
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