13 Facts About Richard Shirreff

Richard Shirreff was educated at Oundle School, then an all-boys private school in Northamptonshire.

Richard Shirreff was confirmed as a second lieutenant on probation and as a second lieutenant on 18 June 1977 and simultaneously promoted to lieutenant from the same date.

Richard Shirreff was promoted to captain on 1 August 1980, and to major on 30 September 1987.

Richard Shirreff deployed with his Regiment to Northern Ireland in 1995, for which Shirreff was awarded a Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service.

Richard Shirreff was appointed Commander of 7th Armoured Brigade, which was deployed to Kosovo, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in April 2001 in recognition of his service.

Richard Shirreff was promoted to major general on 9 May 2003 and became Chief of Staff at Land Command and in 2005 he became General Officer Commanding 3rd Mechanised Division, which deployed as HQ Multinational Division South East in Iraq in July 2006.

Richard Shirreff was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2010 New Year Honours.

On 11 January 2010, Richard Shirreff gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry.

Richard Shirreff is currently the honorary colonel of Oxford University OTC and served as the Honorary Colonel to the Royal Wessex Yeomanry from 2005 to 2015.

Richard Shirreff served a term as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Armoured Corps from 2004 and as Colonel of the Kings Royal Hussars from 2012 to 2017.

Richard Shirreff is a founding partner of Strategia Worldwide, a risk management consultancy founded in 2016.

In 2016, Richard Shirreff published a book entitled 2017: War with Russia: An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command.

The part-fictional book suggests that Russia could easily invade the Baltic States, that war between Russia and NATO would be possible, and implies strongly that Richard Shirreff finds military high command and government incapable of creating a suitable response.