Rank Lieutenant-general Allegiance United Kingdom | Service/branch British Army Name Andrew Ridgway | |
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Commands held 3rd Royal Tank Regiment
7th Armoured Brigade Awards Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Order of the British Empire Education Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, St John's College, Cambridge | ||
Battles/wars Bosnian War
Kosovo War Battles and wars Bosnian War, Kosovo War | ||
Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Peter Ridgway, KBE, CB (born 20 March 1950) is a former British Army officer and Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. He was appointed to the latter role for a 5-year term on 14 June 2006 after a long military career.
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Military career
He was educated at Hele's School, Exeter, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and St John's College, Cambridge.
In 1970 he was commissioned into the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, serving in Germany and Ireland as a Troop Leader. In 1975 he qualified as a helicopter pilot, and was given command of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment Air Squadron, operating in Central America and Northern Ireland. In 1982 he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley, before taking command of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment in 1991 and the 7th Armoured Brigade (the 'Desert Rats') in 1993. In 1994 he was appointed UN Commander in Central Bosnia and Herzegovina, and became Chief of Staff for the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps for NATO's entry into the Kosovo War in 1999. For 2003 to 2006, he was Chief of Defence Intelligence, although he was not directly involved in producing the controversial intelligence reports that led to 2003 invasion of Iraq and Operation Telic. He is also Colonel of the Royal Tank Regiment (appointed in 1999), Honorary Colonel of Cambridge University Officer Training Corps and the Westminster Dragoons.
Other jobs in his career have included running the Army budget as Colonel Army Programmes and posts as First Director of Operational Capability, First Director of Training and Education and Chief of Joint Force Operations.
Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey
From 2006 until 2011 Ridgway was Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey, in the Channel Islands, where he acted as the Queen's representative. Though largely a symbolic and ceremonial appointment, the post of Lieutenant-Governor is the essential link between Jersey and the Crown, as the Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom.
Honours and decorations
Ridgway was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1995 and a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2001, as well as receiving the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service and the US Defense Intelligence Agency Award in 2005. Ridgway was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.