chris middleton

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CHRIS MIDDLETON

RANK:LIEUTENANT COLONEL RM JOINED:1996 SPECIALISATION:LANDING CRAFT PREVIOUS UNITS:40 CDO, 45 CDO, 3 CDO BDE Military experience Chris Middleton was born in Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire and educated at Ashby De La Zouch Grammar School and Bangor University. He joined the Royal Marines in 1996. His early service as a Troop Commander in 45 Commando Royal Marines, which focused around the JRRF commitment, included deployments to Norway and the Mediterranean. Following specialisation as a Landing Craft Officer in 1998, an 18 month appointment to the Senior Naval Officer Northern Ireland (SNONI) ensued as OC Operation Lifespan and OCRM. A subsequent role as the Training Officer at 10 (LC) Training Squadron, responsible for delivery of Landing Craft specialists from Marine to Officer level, completed in 2002. Having graduated from Army Junior Division later in the same year he returned to the amphibious environment as SO3 N2/N3 AW to COMATG; deploying on Operation Telic with the staff in early 2003. In the following 28 months, training and advisory deployments across the globe invariably arose, including Malaysia, Oman, USA and Norway as member of either a UK or Netherlands Task Group. In 2004, as a Major, he returned to Commando Unit life as the Operations Officer in 40 Commando Royal Marines, which included an amphibious deployment to Senegal and a brief return to the arctic. Shortly thereafter, he attended ACSC in 2006-7. Sub-unit command in FPGRM from 2007 to 2009 included focus on nuclear security as OC R Squadron initially, followed by a year as OC S Squadron delivering Fleet boarding and protection tasks. During this time S Squadron developed and operationally fielded the Level 3 ‘Enhanced’ Boarding capability to counter the rise in piracy off Somalia, for which he was made an MBE. He returned to 3 Commando Brigade as SO2 G3 Operations at the end of the year and oversaw the brief transition from Op Herrick 9 to contingency, including generation of 42 Commando as the SSCBG and 1 Rifles and the SLE, as well as undertaking amphibious deployments to Norway and Norfolk Virginia.

On promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 2010 he briefly returned to counter-piracy operations as ACOS CJ5 within the EUNAVFOR Op Atalanta staff, before moving to MOD to undertake a role as SO1 Amphibious Joint Warfare in Navy RP. He assumed command of 30 Commando (IX) Group Royal Marines in September 2012. Chris currently lives in Plymouth with his wife, Catriona, and young son, Angus. Long term interests in mountain biking and sea kayaking have been temporarily demoted in favour of baby related logistics and entertainment activities