General Sir Rupert Anthony Smith, (born 13 December 1943) is a retired
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
officer and author of ''
The Utility of Force''. He was a senior commander during the
Gulf War, for which he was recognised with the award of the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...
(DSO), and again during the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
, for which he was recognised with the award of a
bar
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to his DSO. He later became
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Early life and education
Smith was born in
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London at ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Gr ...
, England on 13 December 1943, the son of
Irving Smith and Joan Debenham.
His father was a New Zealand
fighter ace
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended ...
who later led
No. 487 Squadron RNZAF
No. 487 (NZ) Squadron was a light bomber squadron established for service during the Second World War. It was a New Zealand squadron formed under Article XV of the Empire Air Training Plan. Although many of its flying personnel were largely draw ...
before rising to
group captain
Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force, where it originated, as well as the air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank i ...
in the service of the
Royal Air Force.
Smith was educated at the
Haileybury and Imperial Service College and later at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...
.
Military career
Smith enlisted in 1962 and graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the
Parachute Regiment in December 1964. He has served in East and South Africa, Arabia, the Caribbean,
Northern Ireland, Europe and
Malaysia. He was promoted lieutenant in June 1966, captain in December 1970, and major in December 1975. In 1978, when a major, he was awarded the
Queen's Gallantry Medal for services in Northern Ireland.
In June 1980 Smith was promoted to lieutenant colonel and, having been appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the
1982 New Year Honours, was advanced in June 1985 to colonel. His promotion to brigadier came in December 1986.
In October 1990 Smith was promoted
major general and assumed command of the
1st Armoured Division which he led during the
Gulf War. For services during the war he was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...
(DSO),
the United States
Legion of Merit and the Saudi
Order of King Abdulaziz, 3rd Class. The citation for the DSO, published in the ''
London Gazette
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
'' reads:
He became the first Assistant Chief of Defence Operations and Security at the UK Ministry of Defence in August 1992. While there he was intimately involved in the UK's development of the strategy in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In January 1995 he was granted the acting rank of lieutenant general and appointed Commander Bosnia and Herzogovina Command to command
UNPROFOR in
Sarajevo. He was responsible for breaking the siege of the city by creating the UN Rapid Reaction Force, and ultimately thereby bringing the war to an end. His lieutenant general rank was made substantive in April 1995, and he was awarded a
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar ( ...
to his DSO in 1996 for his services in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Knighted as a
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...
in the
1996 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1996 were appointments by most of the sixteen Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other c ...
, Smith was
General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland from 1996 to 1998. His final assignment, initially as an acting general, was as
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe between 1998 and 2001, covering
NATO's
Operation Allied Force during the
Kosovo war
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...
, and the development of the
European Security and Defence Identity
The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...
. His general's rank was made substantive on 1 January 1999. His retirement from the army took effect in January 2002.
He was appointed Honorary Colonel of Exeter University OTC in June 2003 having held periods of tenure as Colonel Commandant Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (November 1992 to November 1997) and Colonel Commandant The Parachute Regiment (July 1993 to September 1998). He also held the appointment of
Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen between August 2000 and November 2001.
Works
He is the author of ''
The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World'' (2005, ), a treatise on
modern warfare that explains why the best military forces in the world win their battles but lose the wars. This is due to the paradigm change in military activity, from
industrial warfare to the paradigm identified in the book as "war amongst the people"—a situation in which an outcome cannot be resolved directly by military force. The strategies for war amongst the people should be analysed as fighting and winning a linked
series of confrontations rather than a series of battles.
Confrontation Analysis by Professor Nigel Howard at CCRP
/ref>
References
External links
for ''The Times Online''
''The Utility of Force''
book review at ''The Times Online''
''The Utility of Force'' book launch at the Carnegie Council
General Sir Rupert Smith Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Book review in The Guardian
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Rupert
1943 births
Military personnel from Chelmsford
Living people
People from Chelmsford
British Army generals
British Army personnel of the Gulf War
British military leaders of the Gulf War
British military personnel of The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
British military writers
British Parachute Regiment officers
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
Legionnaires of the Legion of Merit
NATO military personnel
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Recipients of the Queen's Gallantry Medal
Fellows of King's College London