Brigadier Chris Middleton

Chris Middleton joined the Royal Marines in 1996.  He served in a range of appointments as a junior officer in Commando Units, and as a specialist Landing Craft Officer. He deployed on operational tours in Northern Ireland and Iraq, and conducted training and advisory deployments across the globe including Malaysia, Oman, USA and Norway as member of either a UK or Netherlands Amphibious Task Group. As a Major he was Operations Officer in 40 Commando Royal Marines, attended ACSC in 2006-7, and completed sub-unit command in the Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines, which included nuclear security duties and Fleet boarding and protection tasks.  As OC S Sqn he developed and operationally fielded the Level 3 ‘Enhanced’ Boarding capability to assist in countering piracy off the Somalian coast, for which he was made an MBE.  In his final OF3 tour he returned to 3 Commando Brigade as SO2 G3 Operations in the headquarters and delivered the transition of the Brigade from Op HERRICK 9 to an emergency contingency force. Following promotion in 2010, as a Lieutenant Colonel 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 commanded 30 Commando (IX) Group Royal Marines between 2012-14; a period which was dominated by 3 Commando Brigade’s permanent return to a contingency posture, and included numerous amphibious deployments to the Mediterranean and the Gulf.  Thereafter he served on the Director Joint Warfare staff as Chief of Staff Joint User. On promotion to Colonel in 2015 he was appointed to Defence Intelligence in London as Deputy Head DI Operations.  He attended HCSC17, and following the course took command of the Joint Service Signals Organisation in Digby.   He assumed command of the Joint Forces Intelligence Group on promotion to Brigadier in November 2018.