1 Assault Group

Military experience

Garth Manger joined the Royal Marines in 1985. After completing Young Officer Training and passing out, with the Sword of Honour, he joined 42 Cdo RM. During this appointment he undertook his first tour of Northern Ireland, took part in London Duties, notably street lining for Prince Andrews wedding, and completed his first Norway winter as a Novice.

The next few years included a tour with Commacchio Gp RM and a return to Northern Ireland as OCRM on Op Internet before he specialised as a Communications Officer

His first signals appointment was with 40 Cdo RM as the RSO. During which he completed a further 3 Norway winters and deployed on Op HAVEN (1992) working to help bring the Kurdish refugees down from the mountains of Northern Iraq.

Subsequent communications appointments were in Blandford as an instructor for the Royal Signals and at RM Poole where he deployed around the world in support of ongoing ops and training.

He Commanded X Coy 45 Cdo RM before attending the USMC Command and Staff College. He returned to an appointment in MOD within the Army’s Directorate of Military Ops (DMO) as the desk officer for Northern Ireland where he helped design the subsequent withdrawal of Op Banner forces from the Province.

On promotion to Lt Col he took up an appointment as the Amphibious Concepts officer within Navy Command before becoming the plans officer for the UK’s 2* Amphibious HQ, deploying with the HQ to Iraq as the 2ic of the UK Security Sector Reform team within MND(SE).

He then returned to the MOD with responsibility for the UK’s Military policy for 27 African countries, including Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zimbabwe before completing 2 years as the Operations and Training officer for the Joint Forces HQ. This included numerous training deployments and a short notice operation to Kenya to plan for an evacuation following the 2007 elections.

Before being promoted to Col he spent a year as the Appointer for all RM officers. His first appointment as a Col was at the Defence Academy as a Director on ICSC(L).