Olly Brown CBE: Major General in the British Army

"Follow your passion, whatever it is - you will be happier in your work and life if you do so." 

Current job title and employer

General Officer Commanding 3rd (United Kingdom) Division of the British Army, which is the British Army’s armoured force (comprising tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, artillery, engineers, air defence missile systems, logistics and some 23,000 personnel).

OB Years

1986-1993

Brief description of your path after Brentwood

University of Wales, Aberystwyth to read International Politics and Strategic Studies, followed by a short period of travel before joining attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to join the Army, commissioning into the Royal Anglian Regiment (the local Essex and East Anglia Infantry Regiment) as an officer in 1997.

How has your career path led you to where you are now?

I have served around the world in the Army, deploying on operational tours of duty to Northern Ireland, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan (three times), and Nigeria. Through a succession of jobs in the Army focused on counterinsurgency and warfighting, I have been privileged to lead soldiers at multiple levels in combat and have also led teams of staff officers responsible for designing and delivering training and operational activity around the world. And during Covid, I led a team supporting the NHS in North East England including the delivery of testing and vaccinations across Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Cumbria. In my last role, I was responsible for planning, resourcing and managing the delivery of all global operations and activity for the British Army – this spanned planning for our late Queen’s funeral and the new King’s Coronation parades, sending soldiers to help with flooding relief in UK, and sending soldiers around the world to train, to advise partner forces and to deliver security operations – on average about 10,000 were deployed on any given day during my two years in the job. The highlight of this role was providing support to our partners in the Ukrainian Army – this entailed providing them with tanks, artillery, other vehicles and ammunition – all of which we trained them how to use. And my team and I also coordinated the multinational effort to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK under Operation Interflex, as it was known.  During the course of my involvement in this operation, the British Army trained well over 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers who returned to their country to fight against Russia.  I am delighted to have been recognised for my contribution to UK Defence in this role with the award of a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2025.

Did you develop any particular skills or attributes at Brentwood that have helped your career?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the CCF, which spurred my interest to join the Army, as you might expect. I credit a great deal of my success to the confidence and independence I developed as a boarder at school, and especially to the advice and guidance of Godfrey Thomas (Housemaster of School House) and Nigel Carr (Housemaster of Hough House) during my time at the school. I must, however, highlight the hugely positive impact of John White, the CCF’s School Staff Instructor, on my development of grit and determination to succeed under pressure – attributes I have called upon many, many times when on operational duty.

Favourite Brentwood memory

Playing cricket and football, and the CCF.

Any words of advice for those graduating this year?

Follow your passion, whatever it is – you will be happier in your work and life if you do so. Embrace failure – I make mistakes every day and have benefitted immensely from the learning experience they offer me. Be kind to yourself and to those you work with and rely on.