Major General Alex Turner

Director Futures British Army

Major General Alex Turner commissioned into the Irish Guards in 1998. At regimental duty he deployed on operations to Kosovo, Northern Ireland, the Iraq invasion of 2003 and Afghanistan. Beyond the regiment he served as an infantry instructor, an observer with the United Nations on the Kuwait/ Iraq border in 2002/3, as an analyst with the MoD’s Defence Intelligence Staff and a stint with the Directorate of Training (Army) where he designed individual training for operations. He returned to Afghanistan for a year in 2013/14 to assist with the creation of an Afghan National Army Officer training academy in Kabul. He commanded 1st Battalion Irish Guards from 2014 to 2017, whereupon he promoted to the General Staff and was employed as an operational planner in the Permanent Joint Headquarters Northwood. After completing the Higher Command and Staff Course, he spent a short period in MoD’s strategic communication unit before promoting into the role of Head of Strategy for the Army. From 2020 to 2022 he commanded 77th Brigade, the Army’s information activities formation, before assuming the role of Director Army Futures. A published military historian, he has lectured and broadcast about the First World War and is an active member of an organisation that explores and surveys Western Front tunnel systems. He is also a fellow of the MacDowell Arts Colony in New Hampshire USA for creative writing, and a keen, if cautious, mountaineer.