Andrew Ridgway

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Lieutenant General Andrew Peter Ridgway, CB, CBE, became Lieutenant Governor of Jersey from 14 June 2006 after a long military career. He was born in 1950, 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 and the 7th Armoured Brigade (the 'Desert Rats'). 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. Most recently, 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) and Honorary Colonel of Cambridge University Officer Training Corps.

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.

He was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1995 and CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath) in 2001, as well as receiving the QCVS (Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service) and the US Defence Intelligence Agency Award in 2005.