Lieutenant General Jonathon Peter Riley, (born 16 January 1955) is a retired British Army officer and military historian. Military career Riley joined the British Army as an officer cadet in 1971, and was commissioned into the Queen's Regiment in 1974. He was promoted to lieutenant on 9 March 1976, to captain on 9 September 1980 and, having attended the Staff College, Camberley, in 1987, he was promoted to major at the end of the year. During this time he saw active service in Northern Ireland. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1993, Riley undertook a tour as an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, that year. He was deployed as Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers to the Muslim enclave of Goražde in 1995 under a mandate to ensure the Serbs did not violate the NATO ultimatum. The Army of Republika Srpska attacked the town without warning, capturing 33 soldiers under Riley's command and several hundred other fellow United Nations peacekeepers in May. Having halted the initial Serb attack, the battalion handed over the defence of the enclave to the Bosnian 81st Division. During the siege that followed, protocol was broken when first the Director of Military Operations, then the Chief of the General Staff and finally Prime Minister John Major telephoned Riley to be briefed on the situation. The enclave was successfully defended and unlike Srebrenica and Zepa it never fell to the Serbs; the 33 Fusiliers and fellow UN peacekeepers were later rescued safely. Riley was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry and distinguished services in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia in 1996, and promoted to full colonel in July 1997. Promoted to brigadier on 31 December 1998, Riley became commander of the 1st Mechanised Brigade in Bosnia in 1999 and commander of the UK Joint Task Force in Sierra Leone in 2000. He was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service for his service in Sierra Leone. He became Deputy Commandant of the Staff College and Director of the Higher Command and Staff Course in 2001. Riley was deployed as Deputy Commanding General of the Coalition Military Advisory and Training Team in Iraq in May 2003 and then became Commanding General Multi-National Division (South East), Iraq and GOC British Forces in November 2004 with promotion to major general. In 2005, he was awarded the United States' Legion of Merit for his service in