John Foley (British Army officer)

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.

Sir John Foley
Born	(1939-04-22) 22 April 1939 (age 84)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1959–1997
Rank	Lieutenant General
Service number	460829
Unit	Special Air Service
Commands held	Commander British Forces in Hong Kong Director SAS
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Officer of the Order of the British Empire Military Cross

Military career

Foley joined the Special Air Service as an enlisted man during his National Service.^[1] He served in BRIXMIS during the 1970s. He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in 1959^[2] and rose to become Director SAS in 1983.^[3] 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,^[4] 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.^[1]

Later life

In October 1999, he replaced Sir William Rous as Chairman of the British Greyhound Racing Board but resigned just six months later.^[5] In 2000, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey, and served in that post for five years before retiring to his native Herefordshire.^[1] He was appointed High Sheriff of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in 2006^[1] and Vice-Lieutenant of Herefordshire in 2010.^[6]

References

1. "Interview with Sir John Foley". Retrieved 8 April 2008.
2. "No. 41772". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 July 1959. p. 4674.
3. (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. 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 by Peter de la Billière	Director SAS 1983–1985	Succeeded by Michael Wilkes
Preceded by Sir Peter Duffell	Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong 1992–1994	Succeeded by Bryan Dutton
Preceded by Sir John Walker	Chief of Defence Intelligence 1994–1997	Succeeded by Sir Alan West
Government offices
Preceded by Sir John Coward	Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey 2000–2005	Succeeded by Sir Fabian Malbon
Honorary titles
Preceded by Andrew Grant	High Sheriff of Herefordshire and Worcestershire 2006	Succeeded by John Yorke