Richard Stanford (British Army officer)

Richard Stanford
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1987–present
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	The Troubles Iraq War
Awards	Member of the Order of the British Empire

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

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] 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.^[4] He became Chief of Joint Fires and Influence Branch at Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in March 2012^[5] and General Officer Commanding Support Command in June 2015.^[6]

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.^[7] It was written after seven men from 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, including Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, the Commanding Officer who succeeded her husband, were killed in action while deployed on Operation Herrick X.^[8]

References

1. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 50965. p. 7683. 15 June 1987. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
2. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 53453. p. 16387. 12 October 1993. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
3. "After 15 years UK military presence, Welsh Guards are last to leave Bosnia". 30 March 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
4. "Uncertainty over UK Iraq legacy". BBC. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
5. "Up and outs". Defence View Points. July 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
6. "Senior Army appointment". The Telegraph. 16 May 2015. p. 30.
7. Stanford, Fiona (2011). Don't Say Goodbye: Our heroes and the families they leave behind. Hachette UK.
8. "When Daddy goes to war: Don't say goodbye: our heroes and the families they leave behind by Fiona Stanford". The Daily Mail. 17 March 2011.