Richard Kemp

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Richard Kemp (born 14 April 1959) is a retired British Army colonel who served from 1977 to 2006 with the Royal Anglian Regiment. He fought in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner), the Gulf War, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He led the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment from 1998 to 2000 and briefly commanded Operation Fingal in Afghanistan in 2003. He was promoted to colonel in 2004 and retired from the army in 2006.

After leaving the service, Kemp co-wrote Attack State Red with Chris Hughes, about Britain’s 2007 Afghan campaign. He has spoken publicly on military and Middle East issues and heads the UK branch of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS).

Kemp was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School, trained as an infantry soldier at Bassingbourn Barracks, and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he was commissioned on 5 August 1978.

Honours include being awarded the MBE in 1994 for intelligence work in Northern Ireland and receiving the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in 1994 for his role with UN forces in Bosnia. He was promoted to CBE in 2006. He also received an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in 2015.

Kemp remains active in public debates on defence and security, and his views have sometimes sparked controversy, particularly on issues of military investigations, diversity, and security policy.