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Gwyn Jenkins
Royal Marines general From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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General Sir Gwyn Jenkins is a senior Royal Marines officer: since 15 May 2025 he has served as the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff.
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He served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff from August 2022 to June 2024. He was concurrently appointed Commandant General Royal Marines in November 2022.
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Early life and education
Jenkins was educated at Malmesbury School.[1]
Military career
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Early career
Jenkins was commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1990. He spent time as a junior officer in the Commando Logistics Regiment and on operations in Northern Ireland with 42 Commando.[2]
In 2004, he graduated from the Military College Shrivenham, where he completed a master's degree in Defence Studies.[2]
He became commanding officer of the Special Boat Service in 2009.[3]
Jenkins was promoted from acting to full colonel on 1 July 2011.[4] In 2011 Jenkins received a written report stating that members of the Army's Special Air Service (SAS), soldiers who were not under his command, operating in Afghanistan had conducted extrajudicial killings. He referred the matter to his superior officer, the Director Special Forces, recommending a detailed investigation: in response SAS tactics were subject to a rare review. The BBC claimed that Jenkins was legally obliged to pass his report to the Royal Military Police as it was an allegation that British forces had committed war crimes. He did not, but placed it in a classified dossier in April 2011.[5] In October 2011 Jenkins deployed to Afghanistan as the commander of all British Special Forces in the country.[5]
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Afghanistan during the period 1 October 2011 to 31 March 2012".[6]
In 2012, Jenkins was appointed military assistant to the prime minister of the United Kingdom.[7] On 1 July 2015, he was promoted from acting to full brigadier.[8] He went on to become Deputy National Security Adviser for Conflict, Stability and Defence in 2016,[9] commander 3 Commando Brigade in 2017,[10] and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Policy) in 2019.[2] From 2021 to 2022, he served as Director Special Forces.[11] Jenkins was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2021 New Year Honours.[12]
In May 2025 investigation carried out by the BBC's Panorama revealed that a Special Forces officer appointed by Jenkins personally rejected 1,585 UK resettlement applications from Afghan army personnel who had served with the SAS.[13] It was claimed that the officer instructed civil service caseworkers to reject the applications on spurious grounds. This was controversial because in the UK they could have been called as witnesses to the public inquiry into the extrajudicial killings, but the inquiry has no power to compel testimony from foreign nationals who are overseas.[11]
As a general
Jenkins was promoted to general on 30 August 2022, skipping the rank of lieutenant general,[14] and took up the post of Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff.[15] He is the first Royal Marine full general since 2016, after Gordon Messenger, and the second since 1977. At the same time he was made an Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth II.[14] Jenkins also became Commandant General Royal Marines on 25 November, succeeding Lieutenant General Robert Magowan. Jenkins became the first full general to serve as Commandant General since the 1970s.[16][17]
On 23 April 2024 the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak announced that Jenkins would become the United Kingdom's next National Security Advisor.[18] However, on 26 August 2024 The Guardian reported that the appointment had been cancelled by the new prime minister, Keir Starmer.[19] Jenkins was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2025 New Year Honours.[20]
In May 2025 Jenkins was appointed as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff. He is the first Royal Marine to hold this role.[21]
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References
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