Richard Swinburn


Sir Richard Hull Swinburn KCB was Commander of the UK Field Army.

Military career

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Swinburn was commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers in 1957. He became Commanding Officer of 17th/21st Lancers in 1979 and Commander of 7th Armoured Brigade in 1983. He went on to be General Officer Commanding 1st Armoured Division in 1987 and Assistant Chief of the General Staff in 1989. He was made GOC South East District in 1990. He was then made Commander UK Field Army in 1994 and retired in 1995.
He was given the colonelcy of the Queen's Royal Lancers from 1995 to 2001.

Family

He was the son of Major-General Henry Robinson Swinburn and Naomi Hull. His maternal grandfather was Major-General Sir Charles Hull and his uncle was Field Marshal Sir Richard Hull. In 1964 he married Jane Elise Brodie who died in 2001. In September 2012, it was announced that he was engaged to Susan Ferguson, the widow of Major Ronald Ferguson and the stepmother of Sarah, Duchess of York. They married in December 2012: Prince Andrew, the Duchess of York, and their two daughters attended Sir Richard and Lady Swinburn's wedding celebrations.