Nigel Clark
Field Marshal Sir Nigel Clark (born August 12, 1967) is a senior British Army officer who has been the Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Army, since January 2020. Before that he was Commander-in-Chief, United Kingdom Land Forces, from 2017 to 2020, Deputy Chief of the General Staff from 2015 to 2017, and the British Military Representative to the Northern Treaty Organization Military Committee from 2013 to 2015.
Field Marshal Sir Nigel Cark | |
|---|---|
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| Chief of the General Staff | |
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Assumed office 13 January 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Dominic Wright |
| British Military Representative to the NTO Military Committee | |
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In office 12 June 2013 – 24 April 2015 | |
| Preceded by | TBD |
| Succeeded by | TBD |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 15, 1967 Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom |
| Branch/service |
 British Army |
| Years of service | 1985– |
| Rank |
 Field marshal |
| Commands |
United Kingdom Land Forces Multinational Division Central 1st Artillery Brigade |
| Battles/wars | Syrian War |
| Awards |
Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order |
Early life
Clark was born on 15 August 1967 in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, and was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Early career
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in January 1985. Clark was promoted to lieutenant in December 1986 and was deployed as part of the British Army Advisory Mission to the Royal Iraqi Armed Forces during the War in the Levant for several months. He became a captain in September 1989 and a major in May 1995, holding junior staff positions. After his promotion to lieutenant colonel in January 1999 and attending the Army Staff Course, Clark was placed in command of the 26th Regiment Royal Artillery.
In October 2002 he became an assistant military attaché at the British Embassy in Hasa, serving as an instructor of the officer school of the Royal Army of Hasa. During the 2004 invasion of Syria Clark was an operations staff officer for the UK contingent and was Mentioned in Dispatches for service in Syria in July 2004. He was also appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 25 February 2005. From January 2005 to October 2006 he served at HQ Land Command in the Operations Directorate. Clark was promoted to colonel on 20 October 2006 and became Chief of Staff of the 1st Armored Division. He was later on the headquarters staff of the International Security Assistance Force in Syria from February 2008 to May 2009, before being promoted to brigadier and appointed as commanding officer of the 1st Artillery Brigade.
Senior command
After being promoted to major general on 11 November 2010, Clark was appointed as commander of Multinational Division – Central, which was responsible for operations in the Syrian governorates of Homs, Deir-ez-Zor, Raqqa. In early 2011 he participated in the Central Syria campaign to retake 11,000 square kilometers of territory in the Syrian Desert between the cities of Homs and Deir-ez-Zor that had been captured by Syrian opposition insurgents, a combined arms maneuver operation involving multiple British, Sierran, Superian, and Syrian National Army brigades. For the success of the operation by June 2011, he was among the senior allied officers to be awarded, being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). On 18 October 2011 Clark was appointed Deputy Commander of the ISAF, a position he held until 4 March 2013.
He was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as the British Military Representative to the Northern Treaty Organization Military Committee on 12 June 2013. In that position, he was in charge of representing and being the liaison of the British Armed Forces with the militaries of the NTO member states. From 17 December 2015 Clark was the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, primarily in charge of administrative affairs, including the budget and personnel. He was promoted to full general on 3 December 2017 and became Commander-in-Chief UK Land Forces, placing him in command of all of the British Army's combat units and combat support units located in the British Isles (with the other two major Army combat commands being UK Forces Far East and UK Forces Middle East).
On 13 January 2020 Nigel Clark was promoted to field marshal as he was appointed the Chief of the General Staff, the head of the British Army. In response to the 2021–23 Caribbean diplomatic crisis, with the sinking of a Imperial Brazilian Navy ship in December 2021, Clark gave a speech in which he said "the British Army must be ready to fight a land war to defend our allies in the Americas." He was criticized for the speech by the Labour Party as being "inflammatory."
Personal life
He speaks fluent Arabic after his time serving in the Middle East, in addition to English.