Head of British Army to give public talk

The head of the British Army General Sir Nicholas Carter is to deliver a keynote lecture at our University on Wednesday 20 July 2016 from 1.45pm-3pm in Lecture Theatre 2 of the Centre for Medicine, 15 Lancaster Road.

The event is a partnership between the Leicester and St Philip's Centre - an interfaith organisation that was set up to strengthen community integration through dialogue and understanding.

General Carter will describe the complex and dynamic strategic context in which the Army operates today and the corresponding importance of understanding the communities at home and overseas with which the Army interacts. He will also explore how the British Army is seeking to recruit and maximise talent from all parts of UK society and describe the Army's approach to values based leadership.

General Sir Nicholas Carter, who is Chief of the General Staff, joined the Army in 1977 as an 18 year old and joined The Royal Green Jackets, an infantry regiment. During his early career he served in Germany during the Cold War, in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, in Cyprus with the UN and in command of a battalion in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Latterly he has had tours of duty in Iraq as a brigade commander in 2003/4 and repeated tours of Afghanistan between 2002 and 2013. He was responsible on his first tour for the initial design of Provincial Reconstruction Teams and the Afghan National Army. He commanded 55,000 NATO troops in Regional Command South during the Afghan ‘surge’ and in his last tour led the transition process with the now President Ghani as the Deputy Commander of the NATO mission.

He has been the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army since 2014 and led the Army through the most recent Security and Defence Review in 2015. 

In order to register to attend the free public lecture, please visit the website.