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John Foley (British Army officer)

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(Redirected from John Foley (British Army officer, born 1939)) British Army general

Sir John Foley
Born (1939-04-22) 22 April 1939 (age 85)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1959–1997
RankLieutenant General
Service number460829
UnitSpecial Air Service
CommandsCommander British Forces in Hong Kong
Director SAS
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Military Cross

Lieutenant General Sir John Paul Foley, KCB, OBE, MC, DL (born 22 April 1939) is a retired British Army officer with a long career in military intelligence. He is the great-grandson of Henry Hodgetts-Foley, and was educated at Bradfield College.

Military career

Foley joined the Special Air Service as an enlisted man during his National Service. He served in BRIXMIS during the 1970s. He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in 1959 and rose to become Director SAS in 1983. He was later Director of General Intelligence, which involved ensuring intelligence provision in the theatre of war and making assessments for government ministers at the time of the Gulf War in 1990, and became Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong in 1992, before being named Chief of Defence Intelligence in 1994. He left that post, retiring from the Army three years later, in 1997.

Later life

In October 1999, he replaced Sir William Rous as Chairman of the British Greyhound Racing Board but resigned just six months later. In 2000, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey, and served in that post for five years before retiring to his native Herefordshire. He was appointed High Sheriff of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in 2006 and Vice-Lieutenant of Herefordshire in 2010.

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Sir John Foley". Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  2. "No. 41772". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 July 1959. p. 4674.
  3. "Army Commands" (PDF). 26 July 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
  4. "Not the retiring type" Worcester News, 18 September 2006
  5. "Saying farewell to the Foleys". Guernsey Press. 19 September 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  6. "Sir John Foley's fight for injured soldiers". Herefordshire Life. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Military offices
Preceded byPeter de la Billière Director SAS
1983–1985 		Succeeded byMichael Wilkes
Preceded bySir Peter Duffell Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong
1992–1994 		Succeeded byBryan Dutton
Preceded bySir John Walker Chief of Defence Intelligence
1994–1997 		Succeeded bySir Alan West
Government offices
Preceded bySir John Coward Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
2000–2005 		Succeeded bySir Fabian Malbon
Honorary titles
Preceded byAndrew Grant High Sheriff of Herefordshire and Worcestershire
2006 		Succeeded byJohn Yorke


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