Lieutenant General Sir Ralph William Wooddisse, KCB, CBE, MC

Commander Field Army British Army

Lieutenant General Ralph Wooddisse joined the Army in 1991 after completing a degree at University College London. His first posting was to the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, an armoured infantry battalion based in Germany. In the first part of his career he served in a number of junior officer appointments, saw operational service in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, and trained extensively in Canada, Norway, France and Brunei.

In 2000 he was selected to command a rifle company before attending Staff College for two years. Post Staff College, he returned to sub-unit command where he deployed on a number of operations of varying length and intensity, including to Iraq. His first staff job was as the Military Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a post which included a tour to Kabul as part of HQ ISAF. He assumed command of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment in March 2009, first in Germany and then in Cyprus from where he commanded the Theatre Reserve Battalion.

After completing the Higher Command and Staff Course he served in the Ministry of Defence where he was responsible for military planning for a variety of operations and contingencies. He commanded 38 (Irish) Brigade between 2013-2015 before completing two years as the Assistant Chief of Staff J3 at PJHQ.

He assumed command of 1st (United Kingdom) Division in May 2017 and was appointed as Assistant Chief of the General Staff in November 2018. Lieutenant General Wooddisse was appointed Commander Field Army in April 2021.

Lieutenant General Wooddisse is married to Louise and has three daughters aged 18, 17 and 14.