Last updated at 16:45, Friday, 14 January 2011

A leading military figure in the county has been honoured by the Queen. Brigadier Mike Griffiths received the CBE in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours.

Brigadier Mike Griffiths

The former Keswick Grammar School pupil is currently the Army’s director of personnel and holds the title of Colonel of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.

He was the last man to lead Cumbria’s former King’s Own Royal Border Regiment before it became part of the wider Duke of Lancaster’s, which is now the county’s adopted Army unit.

Brigadier Griffiths was also commander of the military brigade that covers Cumbria – 42 (North West) Brigade – before moving to his current post.

He spent part of his childhood in Carlisle and started his military career as a young cadet in the Keswick detachment of Cumbria Army Cadet Force.

The officer was commissioned into the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment in 1979.

He went on to serve as Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion The King’s Own Royal Border Regiment and later became colonel of the regiment.

As the son of a serviceman, Brigadier Griffiths’ childhood took him abroad, including to Singapore and Germany.

He has served in the UK, Cyprus and the USA and on operations in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Cyprus, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

He has also been the British liaison officer in the Pentagon.

James Cropper, Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, became a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO), rather than receiving a Royal Victorian Order, as reported in The Cumberland News last Friday.

First published at 14:25, Friday, 14 January 2011
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk