Celia Harvey
Major General Harvey in 2020
Born1962/63
Leicester, England
AllegianceBritish Army
Service/branchWomen's Royal Army Corps & Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Years of service1987–2022
RankMajor General
AwardsOfficer of the Order of the British Empire
Queen's Volunteer Reserves Medal
Efficiency Decoration
Volunteer Reserve Service Medal

Major General Celia Jane Harvey, OBE QVRM TD VR formerly Celia, Countess Attlee (born c. 1962) is a British Army Major General and academic. She has served in the Territorial Army since joining the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1987. Harvey transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1991. She was promoted to major general in March 2020 and became deputy commander Field Army.[1][2][3][4] Harvey stood for election to parliament as a Conservative Party candidate in 2010 in the Leicester West seat and came second to Liz Kendall. She is a lecturer in business studies and has published several academic papers.

Early life and career

Celia Plummer was born in Leicester in 1962/63.[5][6] She joined the Territorial Army (TA) section of the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) as an officer cadet and was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant on 5 July 1987; her full commission was confirmed the following year.[7][8] Plummer was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 5 July 1989.[9] With the disbandment of WRAC and integration of women into the main army Plummer transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers on 1 April 1991, by which time she held the acting rank of captain.[10] In November of that year she received promotion to the substantive rank of captain with her seniority backdated to 1 January 1991.[11] On 31 July 1993 she married John Attlee, 3rd Earl Attlee, and was afterwards styled Countess Attlee.[12]

Field officer and political career

Countess Attlee was promoted to the rank of major on 20 January 1997 with seniority backdated to 10 January 1994.[13] She was awarded the Efficiency Decoration for twelve years' service in the TA on 24 August 1999 and promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 January 2001.[14][15] From February 2001 to May 2003 she commanded the East Midlands University Officer Training Corps. She was nominated for appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, which was approved and granted in the 2003 Birthday Honours.[16] By this time Countess Attlee had divorced Earl Attlee and remarried to John Harvey, a TA colonel 13 years her senior. The couple had their first child in November 2001.[6]

Harvey then worked as an instructor at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and was promoted to colonel on 1 March 2005.[6][17] She was awarded the Queen's Volunteer Reserves Medal in the 2009 New Year Honours and the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal on 23 June 2009.[18][19] Harvey's husband became a district councillor and in July 2009 Celia Harvey was selected as the Conservative Party's parliamentary candidate for the Leicester West constituency.[5] In the 2010 United Kingdom general election Harvey came second to Labour's Liz Kendall having increased the Conservative vote by 2.8% and reduced Labour's majority to 4,017 (from 9,070).[20]

Harvey's career outside the army was in academia, particularly in business studies. She has worked as a lecturer and published several papers on innovation and entrepreneurship including Entrepreneurship and Marketing: Issues for Independent Inventors in 2014.[5][21] Harvey was working as a consultant for Marketwise in 2004.[22] Harvey assists her local branch of the Royal British Legion.[23]

General officer career

Harvey was promoted to brigadier by 2017, at which time she was serving as assistant commander of Force Troops Command.[24][23] On 4 June 2019 the then Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt announced that Harvey would be promoted to the rank of major general and appointed deputy commander Field Army in March 2020. Harvey would become the third female major general in the British Army and the first from the reserve forces.[25] Harvey assumed the appointment on 11 March 2020,[26] and was promoted to major-general at the same time.[27] She retired from the Army on 4 December 2022.[28]

References

  1. ^ WO2 Barnes (11 March 2020). "First UK female Army Reservist to become a General Officer appointed".((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Joint Service Publication 761. Medals Worn: OBE, Queen’s Volunteer Service Medal, Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, Territorial Efficiency Medal & Volunteer Reserve Service Medal.
  3. ^ British Post-WW2 to Present Operational Service & Campaign Medals.
  4. ^ Ministry of Defence (9 January 2020). "A decade of deployments: 2010 to 2020". Medium. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Leicester Tories choose candidates to take on Patricia Hewitt's successor, Peter Soulsby and Keith Vaz". ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog. Conservative Party. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "ARMY: Morale-boosting mum scoops OBE". Peterborough Telegraph. Peterborough Today. 26 June 2003. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  7. ^ "No. 51061". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 September 1987. p. 11463.
  8. ^ "No. 51420". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 July 1988. p. 8451.
  9. ^ "No. 51868". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 September 1989. p. 10466.
  10. ^ "No. 52542". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1991. p. 8201.
  11. ^ "No. 52713". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 November 1991. p. 17250.
  12. ^ Hammond, Peter W. (1998). The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. p. 815.
  13. ^ "No. 54718". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 March 1997. p. 3881.
  14. ^ "No. 55590". The London Gazette. 24 August 1999. p. 9183.
  15. ^ "No. 56078". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 January 2001. p. 14618.
  16. ^ "No. 56963". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2003. p. 5.
  17. ^ "No. 57603". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 April 2005. p. 4097.
  18. ^ "No. 58929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 26.
  19. ^ "No. 59106". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 June 2009. p. 10705.
  20. ^ "Election 2010 - Results - Leicester West". BBC News. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  21. ^ Wright, Len Tiu; Harvey, Celia (2014). "Entrepreneurship and Marketing: Issues for Independent Inventors". Handbook of Research on International Entrepreneurship. doi:10.4337/9781845420512.00019. ISBN 9781845420512. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  22. ^ Dana, Leo Paul (2004). Handbook of Research on International Entrepreneurship. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 9781845420512. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  23. ^ a b "Party in honour of volunteers from Stamford area who supported Poppy Appeal". Stamford Mercury. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  24. ^ "London's reservist medics pass out as officers from Sandhurst". The Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association for Greater London. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  25. ^ "Defence Secretary keynote speech at the Land Warfare Conference 2019". British Government. Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  26. ^ "First UK female Army Reservist to become a General Officer appointed". British Army. Andover. 11 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  27. ^ "No. 62947". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 March 2020. p. 5503.
  28. ^ "No. 63895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 December 2022. p. 23362.
Military offices Preceded byWilliam O'Leary Deputy Commander Field Army (Reserves) 2020–2022 Succeeded byAidan Smyth
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