Major General P R Newton CBE MPhil

2007-2010 (PWRR)

Paul Newton was educated at Sandhurst and later at Cambridge University (where his MPhil thesis examined UN peace enforcement operations). He joined his local county infantry regiment at 18 and was fortunate to spend more than 6 years commanding platoons and over 3 as a company commander with the Royal Hampshires. He has completed 8 operational tours in Northern Ireland (including command of the 2nd Battalion, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment and most recently as Commander 8 Infantry Brigade) and 2 in Iraq.

After graduating from the Army Staff College he was appointed as Military Assistant to the Chief of Staff, HQ British Army of the Rhine. Whilst at Cambridge he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, briefly returning to Camberley on the Directing Staff: there he revised the UK’s doctrine for counter-insurgency operations. He then led 2 PWRR for two and a half years in 5 Airborne and 8 Infantry Brigades.

As a Colonel, he headed the HQ Land Command Operations/Plans branch, part of UK’s Defence Crisis Management Organisation (DCMO). During this period he graduated from the Joint Higher Command and Staff Course and was immediately seconded to the Permanent Joint Headquarters to help write the estimate and campaign plans for the Kosovo operation. At Wilton he exercised command authority over Brunei Garrison, helping to plan and deploy the UK Force to East Timor. Major General Newton went to Sierra Leone to complete the DCMO strategic estimate, and in addition led the planning and mounted several other contingency operations: he was also the HQ LAND focus for the Army contribution to the Joint Rapid Reaction Force.

After 2 years of brigade command, for which he was awarded the CBE, Major General Newton attended the Royal College of Defence Studies where he completed PhD research training. In 2003 he became CDS’ LO to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs in Washington, working on Iraq. He deployed from there to Baghdad in September 2004 as the Deputy, Strategic Planning (C5) in HQ MNF-I for which he was awarded the US Legion of Merit.

In January 2005 he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff J2 (Intelligence) at the UK’s PJHQ, a year dominated by Iraq and Afghanistan. Promoted to Major General in February 2006, he went back to RCDS on the Senior Directing Staff, followed by a return to Baghdad in early 2007 to lead the Coalition reconciliation effort as head of a new Force Strategic Engagement Cell, for which he was awarded a Legion of Merit, First Oak Leaf Cluster.

He took up his current appointment as Director General Development, Concepts and Doctrine in January 2008.

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