General Sir Richard Dannatt

General Sir Richard Dannatt served with the 1st Battalion in Northern Ireland (where he won the Military Cross), Cyprus, and Germany, and commanded the Battalion in the Airmobile role from 1989 to 1991. From 1994 to 1996 he commanded the 4th Armoured Brigade in Germany and Bosnia. He took command of the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in January 1999. In 2000 he returned to Bosnia as the Deputy Commander Operations of the Stabilization Force, and from 2001 to 2002 he was the assistant chief of the General Staff in the Ministry of Defense before taking command of NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. In 2005 he became Commander-in-Chief, Land Command.

Richard Dannatt became Chief of the General Staff in 2006, leading the British Army during its most challenging time in the post-war era as it fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He handed over as Chief forty years to the day from when he first joined the Army. In 2009 HM The Queen appointed him Constable of the Tower of London and in 2010 he was appointed as a Crossbencher to the House of Lords.

Sir Dannatt is Chairman of Trustees of the British Normandy Memorial, which will be the focus of the eightieth anniversary of the D-Day commemoration activities.