Patrick Sanders (British Army officer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Patrick Sanders
Duchess of Cornwall Rifles (Patrick Sanders cropped).jpg
General Sanders in 2020
Born (1966-04-06) 6 April 1966 (age 55)
Tidworth, Hampshire, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1984–present
RankGeneral
Commands heldStrategic Command
Field Army
3rd (United Kingdom) Division
Task Force Helmand
20th Armoured Brigade
4th Battalion, The Rifles
2nd Battalion, The Royal Green Jackets
Battles/warsThe Troubles
Kosovo War
Iraq War
War in Afghanistan
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order

General Sir Patrick Nicholas Yardley Monrad Sanders, KCB, CBE, DSO, ADC Gen (born 6 April 1966) is a senior British Army officer. He currently serves as Commander United Kingdom Strategic Command.

Early life and education[]

Sanders was born on 6 April 1966 in Tidworth, Hampshire, England.[1] He was educated at Worth School, then an all-boys independent boarding school attached to the Benedictine Worth Abbey.[1] He studied at the University of Exeter,[2] and Cranfield University.[3]

Military career[]

Sanders was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets on 23 September 1984.[4] He served as a junior officer in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and then undertook tours in Kosovo in 1999 and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001.[2] He became Chief of Staff of 1st Mechanised Brigade in 2002 and then became commanding officer of 2nd Battalion the Royal Green Jackets in 2005.[2] In the latter role he managed the transition of his battalion to become 4th Battalion The Rifles and then saw action with his battalion at the siege of UK bases in Basra in 2007 during the Iraq War.[5] On 25 July 2008, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Iraq during the period 1st October 2007 to 31st March 2008".[6]

Sanders became commander of 20th Armoured Brigade in August 2009,[7] in which role he was deployed to command Task Force Helmand in Afghanistan in October 2011.[5] On 28 September 2012, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Afghanistan during the period 1 October 2011 to 31 March 2012".[8] He served as Chief of the Defence Staff's Liaison Officer to the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2012 and Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations) in March 2013.[9]

In 2014, Sanders took part in the Prime Minister's Cobra meetings on the floods crisis.[5] He took over command of the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in April 2015.[10] In December 2016, he was appointed Commander Field Army and promoted to lieutenant general.[11] Sanders was appointed Colonel Commandant and President of the Honourable Artillery Company on 31 January 2019, in succession to General Sir Richard Barrons.[12] Sanders was promoted to full general on 6 May 2019 and appointed as Commander Joint Forces Command.[13] Joint Forces Command was renamed as Strategic Command on 9 December 2019.[14]

Sanders was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2020 New Year Honours.[15] He was the preferred candidate of the Ministry of Defence to succeed General Sir Nick Carter as Chief of the Defence Staff in 2021, due to his expertise in cyber capability, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson picked Admiral Sir Tony Radakin instead.[16][17]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Sanders, Lt Gen. Patrick Nicholas Yardley Monrad". Who's Who 2018. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U271381. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4.
  2. ^ a b c "Major-General Patrick Sanders" (PDF). Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  3. ^ 'SANDERS, Maj. Gen. Patrick Nicholas Yardley Monrad', Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
  4. ^ "No. 49939". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 November 1984. p. 16021.
  5. ^ a b c "UK floods: Iraq war veteran Maj Gen Patrick Sanders leads military flood response". The Telegraph. 12 February 2014. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014.
  6. ^ "No. 58776". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 July 2008. p. 11244.
  7. ^ "Senior Army Commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  8. ^ "No. 60283". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 September 2012. p. 18623.
  9. ^ "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  10. ^ "Court & Social". The Times. 30 July 2014.
  11. ^ "No. 61793". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 December 2016. p. 26901.
  12. ^ "Buckingham Palace". The Times. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  13. ^ "No. 62635". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 May 2019. p. 8120.
  14. ^ "Joint Forces Command to Strategic Command, the journey". gov.uk. Strategic Command. 9 December 2019. JFC is also being renamed Strategic Command to better reflect the contribution it makes to defence.
  15. ^ "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N2.
  16. ^ Parker, George (2 October 2021). "UK military chiefs battle to become next head of armed forces". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  17. ^ Sheridan, Danielle (8 October 2021). "PM went against MOD to appoint Radakin". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
Military offices
Preceded by General Officer Commanding the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division
2015–2016 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Commander Field Army
2016–2019 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Commander Joint Forces Command
(Commander Strategic Command from December 2019)
2019 – 		Incumbent
Preceded by Colonel Commandant and President, Honourable Artillery Company
2019– 		Incumbent
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