Colonel Andrew Harrison DSO MBE (late PARA)

Colonel Andy Harrison commissioned into The Parachute Regiment in 1990, serving in Aldershot and Northern Ireland prior to being seconded to the UN in Iraq in 1994. The following year he returned to the UK to instruct at the Military Academy and subsequently moved to the Ministry of Defence’s Directorate of Military Operations.

In 2000 Harrison was posted to Sierra Leone as an unarmed UN Military Observer. On the outbreak of civil war he was captured by the Revolutionary United Front. After two weeks in captivity, he escaped and led his team into a rebel surrounded enclave, surviving for three months until rescue. Harrison was appointed a Member of the British Empire for his conduct in captivity.

Following a Masters Degree in Defence Administration and Staff College, Harrison assumed Company Command and led his Company in the 2003 liberation of Iraq. Thereafter he was appointed Chief of Staff of 20 Armoured Brigade and returned to Iraq in 2006 on a 6 month tour of Basra. 

In 2007 Harrison was posted to the Permanent Joint Headquarters and was the Middle East Operations Team Leader throughout the British exit from Iraq.  He was subsequently seconded to Afghanistan in 2009.  Later that year he assumed command of 2^nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, taking them to Helmand in October 2010.  He returned in May this year and was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order for his command in Afghanistan. Colonel Harrison is now Assistant Head of Afghanistan Operations in the Ministry of Defence and attends the Higher Command and Staff Course in January.