Richard Dannatt
Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, is a retired senior British Army officer and member of the House of Lords. He was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009.
Dannatt was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971, and his first tour of duty was in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of operations, also in Northern Ireland, Dannatt was awarded the Military Cross. Following a major stroke in 1977, Dannatt considered leaving the army, but was encouraged by his commanding officer to stay. After Staff College, he became a company commander and eventually assumed command of the Green Howards in 1989. He attended and then commanded the Higher Command and Staff Course, after which he was promoted to brigadier. Dannatt was given command of the 4th Armoured Brigade in 1994 and in the following year commanded the British component of the Implementation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dannatt took command of the 3rd Mechanised Division in 1999 and simultaneously commanded British forces in Kosovo. After a brief tour in Bosnia, he was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff. Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, he became involved in planning for subsequent operations in the Middle East. As Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a role he assumed in 2003, Dannatt led the ARRC headquarters in planning for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The ARRC served in Afghanistan in 2005, but by this time Dannatt was Commander-in-Chief, Land Command—the day-to-day commander of the British Army. He was responsible for implementing a controversial reorganisation of the infantry, which eventually resulted in his regiment, the Green Howards, being amalgamated into the Yorkshire Regiment.
Dannatt was appointed Chief of the General Staff in August 2006, succeeding General Sir Mike Jackson. Dannatt faced controversy over his outspokenness, in particular his calls for improved pay and conditions for soldiers and for a drawdown of operations in Iraq in order to better staff those in Afghanistan. He also set about trying to increase his public profile, worried that he was not recognisable enough at a time when he had to defend the army's reputation against alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq. He later assisted with the formation of Help for Heroes to fund a swimming pool at Headley Court and, later in his tenure, brokered an agreement with the British press that allowed Prince Harry to serve in Afghanistan. He was succeeded as CGS by Sir David Richards and retired in 2009, taking up the largely honorary post of Constable of the Tower of London, which he held until July 2016.
Between November 2009 and the British general election in May 2010, Dannatt served as a defence adviser to Conservative Party leader David Cameron. Dannatt resigned when Cameron's party formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats after the election produced a hung parliament, arguing that the prime minister should rely primarily on the advice of the incumbent service chiefs. Dannatt published an autobiography in 2010 and continues to be involved with a number of charities and organisations related to the armed forces. He is married with four children, one of whom served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards.
In December 2025, Dannatt was suspended from the House of Lords for four months for offering to secure meetings for a client to lobby government ministers.
Early life
Dannatt, the son of Anthony and Mary, was born at home in Broomfield—now a suburb of Chelmsford—in Essex. His father and grandfather were architects, working from a practice in Chelmsford, and his mother was a part-time teacher at the London Bible College. He had an elder sister who died from breast cancer in 1988. Dannatt was heavily influenced by his paternal great-grandfather, a Victorian farmer and devout Christian who devised a drainage system.Dannatt and his sister were sent to separate boarding schools. He attended Felsted Junior School, where he gained an ambition to become a professional cricketer. For his secondary education, he was sent to St. Lawrence College in Ramsgate, Kent, where he joined the Combined Cadet Force and eventually rose to senior under-officer. While at school, he developed a dislike of his first name, Francis, after it was mistaken for a girl's and he was invited to a birthday party at which he was the only boy. He eventually switched to his middle name, Richard, when he was fifteen. By then aspiring to become a barrister, Dannatt applied to study law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge but was turned down after an interview, at which point his ambition switched towards a military career.
Early military career
Having initially been interested in a tank regiment, Dannatt was interviewed at the Regular Commissions Board by an officer from the Green Howards, who persuaded him to consider the infantry and arranged for a visit to a barracks near Colchester. There he met Peter Inge, then a major, and Dannatt became set on joining the Green Howards. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in September 1969 and was commissioned into the Green Howards as a second lieutenant on 30 July 1971. After a short period of leave, he was sent to Belfast, Northern Ireland, as a platoon commander.Upon completion of the tour, Dannatt returned to Great Britain to take a platoon commanders' course, after which he rejoined the Green Howards at their barracks in West Germany. He and his platoon returned to Belfast in late 1972. For gallantry on an operation in which his platoon came under fire in East Belfast on 7 February 1972, he was later awarded the Military Cross. His first promotion was to lieutenant on 30 January 1973.
Having completed his tour in Northern Ireland, Dannatt applied to take an "in-service" degreea degree at a civilian university, sponsored by the army, at Hatfield College, Durham University. He was accepted, and commenced study of economic history later in 1973. During his first year at university, Dannatt attended a debate at Trinity College, Dublina rare opportunity for a serving British officer at the height of The Troubles.
In 1974, he was involved in fundraising for a specially adapted Mini car to be provided for a disabled fellow student, Sue Foster, which included charity dinners held at various colleges and a sponsored walk to Scotch Corner and back.
As part of the arrangement for the "in-service" degree, Dannatt was required to return to the Green Howards during the academic summer break. For both summers, the regiment was serving in Northern Irelandin Armagh in 1974 and South Armagh in 1975. During the 1975 tour Dannatt was involved in an operation to destroy an improvised explosive device, but it was booby-trapped and detonated; Dannatt was uninjured but four soldiers, including Dannatt's company commander, Major Peter Willis, were killed. Shortly thereafter, Dannatt arrested a man in connection with the incident and later gave evidence against him in court. Dannatt graduated in 1976 and, rejoining his regiment, was posted to Berlin. He was appointed battalion adjutant and promoted to captain in July 1977.
On 11 November 1977, aged 26, Dannatt suffered a major stroke; he spent most of the next two years recovering, but was allowed to return to duty in 1978. He was posted to Northern Ireland, accompanied by his wife, who gave birth to the couple's first son in Craigavon Area Hospital a few weeks into the tour.
Dannatt left Northern Ireland ahead of the rest of the battalion and was posted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey, then under the command of Major General Rupert Smith, and expected this to be his last posting in the light of his stroke. He applied for a variety of jobs outside the army but, after Smith's encouragement, sat the entrance exams for Staff College, Camberley, also in Surrey. He passed the entrance exams and turned down two civilian job offers to accept his place. Before Camberley, in late 1980, Dannatt was posted to Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, as a company commander.
In early 1981, his company took over the running of HM Prison Frankland during a month-long strike by prison officers. Shortly after the end of the strike, he was posted to Cyprus with the United Nations peacekeeping force before returning to Surrey for the start of the one-year Command and Staff Course at Camberley. After completing the course, he was promoted to major on 30 September 1982, and appointed chief of staff to 20th Armoured Brigade, based in West Germany.
After two years as chief of staff, Dannatt returned to the Green Howards, then also based in West Germany, to command a company for the second time in his career. He was posted to Northern Ireland for six months in 1985, his fifth tour in the province, though it was significantly quieter than his previous tours. He was appointed Military Assistant to the Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 1986, his first position at the Ministry of Defence in London.
Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 30 June 1987, Dannatt spent three years at the MoD, in a role he described as "bridging the gap" between the military and politicians, most of whom did not have first-hand experience in the armed forces. At the end of his tenure, he was involved with Field Marshal Sir Nigel Bagnall's British Military Doctrine in its final stages as it was submitted for ministerial approval. The Green Howards celebrated their 300th anniversary in 1988 and Dannatt took command of the regiment in 1989. He was responsible for overseeing its transition into an airmobile role, forming part of 24th Airmobile Brigade. He served his sixth and final tour in Northern Ireland in 1991 when the Green Howards were deployed to South Armagh for a month.
Returning to Staff College, Camberley, Dannatt took the Higher Command and Staff Course, after which he was promoted to colonel on 31 December 1991, backdated to 30 June 1991, and tasked with the running of the HCSC, as well as updating the British Military Doctrine in the light of the end of the Cold War. He also drafted the campaign plan for Lieutenant General Mike Rose's command of the United Nations Protection Force in the Balkans. Dannatt was promoted to brigadier on 31 December 1993, backdated to 30 June 1993, and took command of 4th Armoured Brigade, based in Germany. He spent 1994 commanding the brigade and overseeing training and, in 1995, was posted to Bosnia along with his headquarters staff, leaving the rest of the brigade in Germany and taking command of separate units already deployed in Bosnia. He commanded UNPROFOR's Sector South West, composed of troops from multiple nations, while also serving as Commander of British Forces, responsible for overseeing operations of all British troops in Bosnia. After the signing of the Dayton Agreement in November 1995, UNPROFOR became the NATO-led Implementation Force and Dannatt's brigade was incorporated into a multi-national division commanded by Mike Jackson. Dannatt was later appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his service in the Balkans.
Handing over 4th Armoured Brigade to David Richards, Dannatt was appointed Director, Defence Programme Staff at the MoD in 1996 and was responsible for part of the implementation of the Strategic Defence Review, produced by the Labour government that had come to power in 1997.