Mark Stanhope

Sir Mark Stanhope
Born	26 March 1952 (age 59) Hammersmith, London, England, UK
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1970 -
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	HMS Orpheus HMS Splendid HMS London HMS Illustrious Fleet
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, GCB, OBE (born 26 March 1952) is the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff of the United Kingdom, thus the professional head of the Royal Navy.

Early life

Mark Stanhope was educated at the London Nautical School, Worthing High School for Boys (since 1973 the sixth form college Worthing College) and then St Peter's College, Oxford, where he gained an MA in Physics. He joined the Royal Navy in 1970.

Naval career

He commanded the submarines HMS Orpheus from 1981 to 1983 and HMS Splendid from 1986 to 1989. He then went on to command the frigate HMS London from 1991 to 1993 and subsequently the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from 1998 to 2000 during which time that ship was deployed on operational patrol off Sierra Leone. He was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Fleet in 2002.^[1]

He was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation at NATO from 2004 until November 2007, including a period as Acting Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in 2005 waiting for a new U.S. Supreme Allied Commander to arrive. In November 2007 he became Commander-in-Chief Fleet.^[1] He succeeded Admiral Sir Jonathon Band as First Sea Lord in July 2009.^[2][3][4]

Already Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), Stanhope was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.^[5]

In June 2011 he warned that the fleet will not be able to continue the current scale of operations around Libya beyond the summer unless ministers take tough decisions about what they want to prioritise. He said the navy had planned for a six-month commitment but that the government would have to make "challenging decisions" about what it wanted to do thereafter. In a briefing at Admiralty House, Stanhope said: "How long can we go on as we are in Libya? Certainly – in terms of Nato's current time limit that has been extended to 90 days – we are comfortable with that. Beyond that we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about priorities. There are different ways of doing this. It's not simply about giving up standing commitments, we will have to rebalance."^[6] On June 24, 2011, The Telegraph newspaper reported that Stanhope, who publicly questioned Prime Minister David Cameron's handling conflicts in Libya and/or Afghanistan, will lose his position on the Defence Board, the highest non-ministerial Ministry of Defence committee, which makes decision on all aspect of military policy.^[7]

Family

He and his wife, Jan, have been married since 1975, and have one daughter. They live in Exeter. Lady Stanhope, an Oxford graduate in Physics, was the Director of Resources at Devon County Council from 2000-04.^[8]

Awards

• Recipient of the US Legion of Merit (Officer)
• Freeman of the City of London and the Guild of Freemen
• Younger Brother of Trinity House
• Fellow of the Nautical Institute
• Liveryman of the Upholders Company
• Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford

References

External links

Media related to Mark Stanhope at Wikimedia Commons

Source

• Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope GCB OBE ADC

Military offices
Preceded by Sir Ian Forbes	Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation 2004–2007	Succeeded by Admiral Luciano Zappata, Italian Navy
Preceded by Sir James Burnell-Nugent	Commander-in-Chief Fleet 2007–June 2009	Succeeded by Sir Trevor Soar
Preceded by Sir Jonathon Band	First Sea Lord July 2009–	Succeeded by Incumbent