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Alan West, Baron West of Spithead

Admiral The Right Honourable
The Lord West of Spithead
GCB DSC PC
1SL Alan West (cropped).jpg
West in September 2013
Minister for Security and Counter-Terrorism
In office
28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by Tony McNulty
Succeeded by The Baroness Neville-Jones
Chancellor of Southampton Solent University
Assumed office
28 June 2006
Deputy Professor Graham Baldwin
Personal details
Born (1948-04-21) 21 April 1948 (age 68)
London, United Kingdom
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Rosemary Anne Linington Childs (m. 1973)
Children 3
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service 1965–2006
Rank Admiral
Commands First Sea Lord
Commander-in-Chief Fleet
Commander United Kingdom Task Group
HMS Bristol
HMS Ardent
Battles/wars Falklands War
Iraq War
Awards Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Service Cross

Admiral Alan William John West, Baron West of Spithead, GCB DSC PC (born 21 April 1948) is a retired senior officer of the Royal Navy and formerly, from June 2007 to May 2010, a Labour Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the British Home Office with responsibility for security and a security advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Prior to his ministerial appointment, he was First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 2002 to 2006. He is the current Chancellor of Southampton Solent University.

West was born on 21 April 1948 in Lambeth, London, and was educated at Windsor Grammar School (now known as The Windsor Boys' School) and Clydebank High School. He joined Britannia Royal Naval College in 1965 and served in HMS Albion during her standby duty for the Nigerian Civil War and circumnavigated the globe in HMS Whitby, taking part in the Beira Patrol. He was confirmed as a sub-lieutenant on 1 September 1969, and promoted to lieutenant on 1 May 1970. After his command of the Ton-class minesweeper HMS Yarnton in Hong Kong in 1973, he qualified as a principal warfare officer in 1975 and then served as operations officer in the frigate HMS Juno in 1976 and then the frigate HMS Ambuscade in 1977. Promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 April 1978, he attended the Royal Navy Staff College that year and then qualified as an advanced warfare officer before being posted to the destroyer HMS Norfolk in 1979.


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