Richard Kemp

Colonel Richard Justin Kemp (born 14 April 1959) is a retired British Army officer who served from 1977 to 2006.

Kemp was an infantry battalion commanding officer.

Kemp was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School before serving as a soldier and officer in the Royal Anglian Regiment from 1977 to 2006.

Having trained as an infantry soldier in 1977 at Bassingbourn Barracks, Cambridgeshire, he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant on the General List on 5 August 1978.

Posted back to the Royal Anglian Regiment in 1979, Kemp was appointed as a platoon commander with the 3rd Battalion, based in Palace Barracks, Belfast.

During his military career Kemp completed seven deployments on Operation Banner in Northern Ireland.

He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1980 and Captain in 1985.

He later became a training instructor at Bassingbourn before a posting to the 2nd Battalion as the second in command of a company, Milan Platoon commander, and then battle group operations officer, serving in several locations across the world, including a tour as part of UNFICYP in Cyprus.

As a captain in the Royal Anglian Regiment, Kemp took part in the first Gulf War in 1990–91, commanding the Tactical Headquarters of 7th Armoured Brigade, and was promoted to the rank of Major in 1991.

Following tours with the 7th Armoured Brigade and in Headquarters Northern Ireland, he returned to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment as Point Company Commander, leading the company in Bosnia, Germany and Canada.

In Bosnia, he served on operations with the United Nations (UNPROFOR).

He then took over the Armoured Infantry Training and Advisory Team based at Hohne and Sennelager, and held a staff appointment in the Ministry of Defence.

Kemp was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1997 and commanded the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment in Oakington and Derry from 1998 to 2000.

After this command, he was appointed commander of the Operational Training and Advisory Group and then spent six months as Counter Terrorism and Security Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Kemp was questioned by police in 2000 concerning his suspected role in the murder of a prominent Republican figure during the 1980s, but charges were not brought against him.

Kemp was attached to the Cabinet Office from 2001 to 2006, during which time he was briefly Commander of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan (between July and November 2003) with approximately 300 soldiers under his command.

Among his assignments were the command of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from July to November 2003.

He was promoted to the rank of colonel on 30 June 2004 and retired from the army on 30 March 2006.

At the Cabinet Office he worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee and the national crisis management group, COBRA, during the period of the 2005 London bombings and a series of kidnappings of British nationals in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His responsibilities included Iraq, and he made several visits to Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul.

After retiring Kemp co-wrote Attack State Red with Chris Hughes, an account of the 2007 Afghanistan campaign undertaken by the Royal Anglian Regiment, documenting their initial deployment.

Kemp has spoken on a range of social and political issues, including the British armed forces, the Middle East, and the European Union.

After leaving the army, Kemp co-authored the book Attack State Red with Chris Hughes, a journalist with the Daily Mirror. It describes the deployment of the Royal Anglian Regiment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2007 as a part of Operation Herrick.

The title of the book comes from the British military standing operating procedures (SOPs) for the alert state of a base referring to the likelihood of attack.

Kemp was involved in the "Honour the Brave" campaign led by the Daily Mirror in 2007 and 2008 to recognise the sacrifice of British troops killed or wounded in action by the award of a medal similar to the US Purple Heart.

The book was published in September 2009 by Penguin Books.

Kemp has repeatedly spoken out against the investigation and prosecution of British soldiers for suspected criminal acts in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the opening of new investigations relating to the actions of British soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, including those relating to Bloody Sunday.

Kemp told the Belfast News Letter that he was concerned about the investigations into historic crimes, stating "It is obvious some soldiers do some wrong things of course but there is a very clear difference between them and terrorists. Soldiers set out to uphold the law whereas terrorists set out to maim and murder. They should be treated differently."

In October 2013 British media reported that Kemp may be on an Al-Qaeda death list.

Kemp featured alongside others who have spoken out against Islamist terrorism on a video released by the Al Qaeda group al-Shabaab, which was responsible for an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in 2013.

The video included a clip from the BBC TV programme HARDtalk of Kemp condemning the murder of Fusilier Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

The al-Shabaab urged UK Islamists to copy the murder.

The Daily Mirror reported that anti-terrorist police had discussed with Kemp this death threat and concerns over his security.

Kemp has consistently criticised efforts by the British Army to increase gender and ethnic diversity.

Kemp criticised the findings of the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Gaza, calling it "flawed and dangerous".

His analysis was strongly critiqued by Richard Falk, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Palestine, who accused Kemp of ignoring and misinterpreting international law.

In 2014 he expressed his strong opposition to the proposal to end the policy prohibition on women serving in ground close combat roles, stating that women lack "ferocity, aggression and killer instinct".

In 2015, Kemp spoke out in support of granting asylum in the UK to Afghan interpreters who had worked with British armed forces.

Kemp is a member of the advisory board of Veterans for Britain, which campaigned strongly during the 2016 referendum for the UK to leave the European Union.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph in 2016 he alleged that the decision to allow women access to all armed forces roles was driven by "feminist zealots and ideologues hell-bent on equality of opportunity without exception" and that "through no fault of their own, women will often become the weak link in an infantry team. The men will have to take up the slack".