Brigadier Richard W Dennis OBE
2010-2016 (PWRR)
Brigadier Richard Dennis was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and RMA Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1978.
After spending the first 6 years of his service in a variety of appointments in Germany, Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Berlin he then became Internal Security Training Advisor to the Brigade of Gurkhas in Hong Kong.
In 1986, he was appointed Adjutant of his Battalion and this was followed by a tour as a company commander with 1st Bn The Staffordshire Regiment in 7 Armoured Brigade which included operational service on Op GRANBY, the British contribution to the first Gulf War.
Attendance at the Staff College, Camberley was followed by a tour as Chief of Staff 33 (later 20) Armoured Brigade in Paderborn. He then moved to regimental duty as a company commander with the 1st Bn of the newly formed Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Returning to the Staff College as a member of the Directing Staff on promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in September 1995, he taught on the last two Army Staff Courses and completed an MBA with the Open University.
In April 1997 he assumed command of 2nd Bn The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Highlights of his command tour included exercising the Battalion in Kenya at the height of the flooding caused by El Nino, a further 6 month tour in Northern Ireland as the Belfast Roulement Battalion (for which he was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service) and the planning and subsequent execution of the private burial of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Althorp.
On relinquishing command in September 1999, Brigadier Dennis moved to the Directorate General of Development and Doctrine at Upavon where he was closely involved with all aspects of Future Army work. He was appointed DACOS G6, HQ LAND, on promotion to Colonel and spent a year running the command and information systems programme for the Field Army.
In September 2001 he was appointed as the first Chief of Staff of the newly formed HQ Theatre Troops and was responsible for the development of the HQ as it brought together the Army's combat support and combat service support brigades under a unified 2 Star command for the first time.
He was closely involved in the planning for Op TELlC, the British contribution to the second Gulf War, with particular emphasis on the provision of command, control and logistic support and the mobilisation of some 4000 reservists from across Theatre Troops.
He was subsequently appointed OBE for this work in the New Years Honours List 2005. After attendance at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2004 Brigadier Dennis assumed command of 15 (North East) Brigade with an area of responsibility running from the Humber to the Scottish border and everything east of the Pennines.
His tour saw him responsible for operational command of 13 TA units, for the provision of military support to two Regional Government Offices and seven police constabularies and the coordination of both Regular and Territorial Army recruiting across the North East.
He pursues a variety of interests both within and outside the Army including hockey, game shooting, golf, sailing and skiing. He is married to Suzannah and they have four sons. He assumed the appointment of Director of Infantry in January 2008. On 1 April 2010 Brigadier Dennis assumed the appointment of Colonel of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
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