Charles Guthrie

Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB GCVO OBE DL (born November 17, 1938 ) is a British former general who was Chief of the Defense Staff of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2001 and has been since 2001 member of the House of Lords as Life Peer .

Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank

Life

Officer and staff officer

After attending Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , Guthrie began his military service in the Welsh Guards in 1959 and was promoted to lieutenant on June 1, 1961 . After serving in the Rhine Army and in Aden , he was promoted to captain on July 25, 1965 and then served as an officer in the 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) regiment in Aden, in the Persian Gulf , in Malaysia and in East Africa .

On December 31, 1970 he was promoted to major company commander of a mechanized infantry company of the 1st  Battalion of the Welsh Guards in Munster and then graduated from Staff College in Camberley in 1972 . After completing his general staff training, Guthrie was from 1973 to 1974 Military Assistant to the Chief of the British Army in the Ministry of Defense . During his subsequent employment as deputy commander of the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards in London and Cyprus , he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 31, 1976 and served as brigade major and chief of staff of a brigade in the Household Division between 1976 and 1977 and in 1977 with the Appointment as Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order awarded.

Guthrie was then from 1977 to 1980 Commander ( Commanding Officer ) of the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards deployed in Berlin and Northern Ireland and received his promotion to Colonel on December 31, 1979 during this time . For his services during his service in Northern Ireland, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire in the spring of 1980 . After a brief assignment as commander of the British forces in the New Hebrides , he was Colonel on the General Staff for Military Operations in the Ministry of Defense from 1980 to 1982 .

General and Chief of Defense Staff

After Guthrie was promoted to brigadier general on December 31, 1981 , he was commander of the 4th Mechanized Brigade from 1982 to 1984 and subsequently chief of staff of the 1st Corps in Bielefeld until 1986 . On January 18, 1986 he took over the post of General Officer Commanding of the Northeast District and at the same time the 2nd Infantry Division in York and was promoted there on March 31, 1986 to major general.

On November 24, 1987 he was appointed Assistant to the Chief of the General Staff of the British Army in the Ministry of Defense, before he was commanding general of the 1st Corps between 1990 and 1991 after his promotion to Lieutenant General on October 2, 1989 . In 1990 he became Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and from then on carried the suffix "Sir". Guthrie then succeeded General Peter Inge as Commander-in-Chief of the Rhine Army on January 7, 1992 and held this position until 1994. At the same time, he was also the commander of the now dissolved Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) of NATO from 1992 to 1993 and received during this time on February 14, 1992 his promotion to general.

As the successor of Inge, he was also aide-de-camp of Queen Elizabeth II from 1993 to 2001 and on March 15, 1994, he was again Chief of the British Army as successor to Inge. After three years in this post, Guthrie, who was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1994 , finally became Chief of Defense Staff of the British Armed Forces on April 2, 1997. After nearly four years of use in this highest military use, he entered on February 15, 2001 in the retired and was on 16 February 2001 by Admiral Michael Boyce , the former First Sea Lord , detached.

During his military career he was awarded the honorary title of Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps (1986 to 1995) and of the SAS Regiment (2000 to 2009). He was also President of the Army Seddle Club from 1991 to 1997 and President of the Army LTA between 1991 and 1999. From 1999 to 2015 Guthrie was Colonel of Honor in the Life Guards , a regiment of the British monarch. He was succeeded by Prince Harry .

House of Lords

After retiring from active military service, Guthrie, who was a board member of the investment bank N M Rothschild & Sons from 2001 to 2010 , became a life peer with the title Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank , of Craigiebank in the City of through a letters patent dated June 27, 2001 Dundee, raised to the nobility . Shortly thereafter, on July 23, 2001, his introduction ( Introduction ) as a member of the House of Lords . In the upper house he belongs to the group of so-called crossbenchers .

Lord Guthrie, who became Commander of the US Legion of Merit in 2001, has also been President of the Federation of London Youth Clubs and Action for Medical Research since 2001, as well as Honorary Fellow and Visiting Professor at King's College London .

He also served as the successor to Lord Inge as President of the Army Benevolent Fund from 2002 to 2012 and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Moscow School of Political Studies since 2002 . He was also President of Weston Spirit from 2003 to 2006 and has also served on the Board of Directors of Petropavlovsk plc and Chairman of the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth since 2008. Lord Guthrie is also trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Freeman of the City of London, member of the Livery Company of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers , Knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta and of the Order of Gregory . Since 2009 he has also been Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset .

In June 2012 he was awarded the rank of honorary field marshal .

On the question of whether the United Kingdom would remain in the European Union, he initially spoke out in favor of EU membership before the referendum due in June 2016 . Shortly before the voting date, he made a change of opinion public and said that a “ Brexit ” was preferable from a military-political point of view. He was concerned about the prospect of a possible common European army .

In 2019 he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.

Publications

• with Michael Quinlan: Just was. The just war tradition: Ethics in modern warfare. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008.

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage (accessed on November 10, 2012)
• Charles Guthrie at Hansard (English)
• Entry in They Work For You (accessed November 10, 2012)
• Biography in Debrett's (accessed November 10, 2012)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prince Harry 'to become Colonel of the Life Guards' after leaving Army (English).
2. ↑ EU referendum: Ex-army chief Lord Guthrie switches to leave. BBC News, June 18, 2016, accessed June 18, 2016 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir Peter Inge	Chief of the Defense Staff 1997-2001	Sir Michael Boyce