General Sir Patrick Sanders – who is the head of the British Army?
General Sir Patrick Sanders serves his country as the Chief of the General Staff (CGS) and has played a significant role within the British Army throughout his career.
Some of his career highlights include taking over the role of CGS in June 2022 from General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith and playing a ceremonial role during the coronation of King Charles III in May.
His previous roles include Commander of Strategic Command and Commander of Joint Forces Command.
Gen Sir Patrick is expected to step down as head of the Army next year.
Who is General Sir Patrick Sanders and what is his military background?
General Sir Patrick Sanders was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets in 1986. He spent his early career on regimental duty in Germany, Norway and the UK.
He has commanded at company, battalion, brigade, and divisional level, including on operations in Northern Ireland (multiple tours), Kosovo (1999 and 2002), Bosnia (2001), Iraq (2007), and Afghanistan (2011-12).
His staff appointments have all been in operational and strategic roles, including as policy/military adviser for the Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, Head Operations (Military) and Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Operations) in the Ministry of Defence.
In 2007, Gen Sir Patrick was the Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion The Rifles during the drawdown of British troops in Basra.
Gen Sir Patrick was promoted to General in May 2019 before taking over as Commander Joint Forces, managing the organisation's move to Strategic Command.
As head of Strategic Command, Gen Sir Patrick spoke about the growing importance of cyber know-how within the military, saying the Armed Forces "have more need of Qs than 007s or M".
He called for the UK military to become "more adept at operating with agility" and called for the Armed Forces "to place equal value and afford equal status to computer scientists, data engineers and cyber operators as we do on the traditional warrior elite".
Opening up about his own mental health
Gen Sir Patrick is thought to be the most senior officer in the military to talk about depression, after his experiences in Iraq, where he lost a number of his own infantry regiment.
In an interview originally published on the Army's Twitter page in 2021, he said: "I was depressed. There were periods of time when I had suicidal thoughts, and it took a good chunk of time to come back from that on the back of a violent tour."
He said he wanted to use his experience to help others and stressed that dealing with the problems plaguing you is just as important regardless of the cause.
Appointment as Chief of the General Staff
As the Chief of the General Staff, he has served as the head of the British Army.
His job is to develop and generate military capability for the regular and reserve armies, whilst maintaining the fighting effectiveness, efficiency, and morale of troops.
Since 2022, Gen Sir Patrick has reported to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the Defence Staff. He also has direct access to the Prime Minister.
He is also a member of the Defence Council and the Army Board, the Armed Forces Committee, the Chiefs of Staff Committee, and the Senior Appointments Committee.
One of the concerns Gen Sir Patrick raised throughout his career was regarding the combat effectiveness of the British Army being affected by the size of the force.
Speaking in December 2022, he commented that the lack of investment in the service was a factor in the Army getting smaller.
He said: "We are also a product of three decades of disinvestment.
"The Army has now halved since 1990, we've taken about £30bn out of the Army's budget since 2015."
In June, Gen Sir Patrick revealed how discussions are being held around gender-neutral naming conventions for currently masculine Army ranks and titles such as 'guardsman' or 'rifleman' in an effort to make the service more inclusive for women.
He told the Centre for Army Leadership Podcast that the "masculine-coded" terms are "something we need to think about really carefully and really hard".
The invasion of Ukraine
The general has been at the forefront of the UK's response to the conflict in Ukraine which started on 24 February 2022.
Gen Sir Patrick has also called for the British Army to take note of the developments in Ukraine and prepare for any potential conflicts in the future.
In June 2022, he and Mr Wallace called for the Army to be turned into a fighting force that could defeat Russia alongside allies on the battlefield.
"We are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again," he added.
Recent duties
As the head of the British Army, he was chosen as the carrier of the Queen Consort's sceptre during the coronation of King Charles III on 6 May 2023.
He was "very honoured" to be the one who carried out the duty on such an important day in British history.
In June 2023, Gen Sir Patrick announced a structural change to the Army, which included the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command being evolved into a new organisation.
He said it will become the Joint Aviation Command during a speech at the Rusi land warfare conference.
While he has only been in the position of Chief of the General Staff since 2022, he is set to step down from the post next year - a position usually held for three years.
Some reports suggest that his decision to step down was influenced by the decreasing size of the military, which he has repeatedly spoken out against.
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