Lieutenant Colonel Dean Canham OBE

Lieutenant Colonel Dean Canham graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and deployed on operational tours in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, and three times to Afghanistan. He has been the Ceremonial Adjutant on State ceremonial duties in London, led the Battalion’s contingent at the 2012 Olympic Games, and deployed to the Falkland Islands.

He has instructed junior soldiers and officers at the Infantry Training Schools and the Defence Academy. He has worked as an Executive Officer in Army HQ, on the Army Strategy team, and as a Plans Officer for Africa in the Joint Headquarters and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s Africa Joint Unit, for which he was appointed an OBE in 2018.

He assumed regimental command in 2020, taking the 1 Mercian Battle Group on operations in Estonia in 2021, and commanding the Lead Armoured Battle Group until spring 2023, when he became Head of the Centre for Army Leadership at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; he is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership.

He moved on to his current role working in the Ministry of Defence in 2025.