The Army has announced the appointment of its first female Major General (2-Star). In September, Brigadier Susan Ridge will become Major General Susan Ridge, the new Director General Army Legal Services.
Meanwhile Brigadier Sharon Nesmith, Commander of 1st (UK) Signal Brigade, is the first female to command a Brigade and recently returned from a recce ahead of a NATO reassurance exercise in the Baltic States.
Currently working as Director Legal Advisory, Brigadier Ridge and her team provide legal advice on discipline and administrative law. Her new role will cover a much wider remit. She will look across the whole of Army Legal Services which provides legal support to the Army in barracks, on training and on operations.
She attended a state secondary school, completed a history degree, and then transferred to the law and is a qualified solicitor. She enjoys antiques and travelling with her family, while pursuing her love of obscure fiction.
Brigadier Ridge, 52, said:
The Army is a constantly evolving organisation which has provided a varied and interesting legal career. It has allowed me the opportunity to develop and progress throughout my working life. I feel very honoured and privileged to have been given this opportunity.
I was working in private practice, specialising in land and property law, but reached a point where I felt the need to seek a greater challenge. I have now spent 23 years with Army Legal Services, employed in a wide range of legal appointments.
I am exceptionally lucky that my husband, also a serving officer, has been hugely supportive of my work and takes on much of the responsibility of managing family and home life, while also juggling his own career. There have been occasions when he has been posted away, we have done long periods of weekend commuting and he has done tours in the Balkans and Afghanistan. But largely it has worked so well because he has been on-side.
My team and I have been involved in the current System of Service Complaints and is advising the Army on the new Service Complaints System. This will certainly provide useful background knowledge and understanding of what is being developed for my next appointment.
Brigadier Sharon Nesmith Commander, 45, has been in post almost a year. She is in charge of 1,500 personnel who provide headquarters information and communication services to the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and Joint Force Headquarters.
Her 20-year military career was partly inspired by her father who was a Royal Naval Reserve Officer and a brother who joined the Army. At 15 she gained an Army Scholarship which led to university and then RMA Sandhurst. She also teaches her two young sons to play the piano and enjoys running, cycling and some skiing.
I am the commander but I am but one part of the team and I can't do what I need to be able to deliver without them and vice versa.
When I commissioned I think we were the first women's commissioning course that was able to choose a cap badge, prior to that it had been limited to the Women's Royal Army Corps. The Royal Corps of Signals always offered me the same opportunities as my male counterparts. As a young Second Lieutenant I did not imagine this is where I would be some 20 years later, it's been really challenging and I've been very fortunate with the appointments I've been given and the people I have worked with. I am absolutely delighted to be in command of 1 Signal Brigade, I was a commanding officer within the Brigade, and I love the Royal Signals' soldiers and other cap badges that serve under my command.
Getting a work-life balance is a real challenge but I don't think that if you looked at any other woman who was in a like-for-like appointment in a corporate organisation she would say anything different. There are real challenges and compromises along the way but I'm extremely fortunate I've got a very supportive family that are able to take the weight of the strain of raising a young family at those times when I am not able to.
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