Jonathon Riley DSO Phd MA, Honorary Associate 
Major General Riley comes from a Yorkshire family with a history of military service in many Regiments and Corps of the British Army, and the Royal Navy.  His early life and education were spent in Yorkshire, the Channel Islands, London and Sussex. He joined the Army in 1973 and was commissioned the following year.  Since then he has served peacetime tours of duty in Britain, the USA, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Kenya and Cyprus. He taught at Sandhurst from 1984-1986, attended the Staff College Camberley as a student in 1987, and taught there in 1993.  He was the Deputy Commandant of the Staff College, responsible for the Higher Command and Staff Course - the senior course in the college - as well as all courses for Army students, from 2001 - 2003. He has been Chief of Staff of an armoured brigade and an armoured division.

On operations, Brigadier Riley has served six tours in Northern Ireland, one in Central America, five in the Balkans and one in Sierra Leone.  He has commanded on operations in every rank, including Commanding Officer, 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers in Gorazde during 1995; Commander 1 Mechanized Brigade in Bosnia in 1998, Deputy Commanding General Multi-national Division (South-West) in Bosnia, 1998 - 1999; Deputy Commanding General, Coalition Military Advisory and Training Team, Iraq, 2003 - 2004; Commanding General, Multi-national Division (South-East) and General Officer Commanding British Forces Iraq, 2004 - 2005.  He is one of a small number of British Officers to have commanded a tri-service Joint Task Force, which he did in Sierra Leone in 2000-2001. In these operations, he has had the privilege of commanding not only British troops, but also troops from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Italy and Sierra Leone. He became Senior British Military Adviser to United States Central Command in August 2005. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, for bravery and distinguished conduct in the Balkans, in 1996; and made an Officer of the Legion of Merit of the United States of America in 2004.

Major General Riley holds the degrees of BA (Geography) from University College London; MA (History) from the University of Leeds; and PhD (History) from Cranfield University. He is a visiting fellow in Modern History at the University of Birmingham, and an honorary fellow of the Centre for Defence and International Security Studies. He has a number of published works including “From Pole to Pole” (1987); several military histories including “Soldiers of the Queen” (1993), “White Dragon” (1995), and “The Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1945 - 2000” (2001); and three studies of command including “Napoleon and the World War - 1813” (2000), “The Campaigns of General Hughie Stockwell” (2006), and “Napoleon as a General”, which will be published in 2007.  In addition he contributes to several magazines and journals. He is a Council member of the Army Records Society, and a member of the Catholic Record Society.