Brigadier Jonathan Forbes Watson (known as Jon) was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church College, Oxford. Having gained an Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics he was commissioned into the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment.

After a period as a platoon commander in Colchester, Ballykinler, Kenya and the Prince of Wales’s Division Depot at Lichfield, he served as Adjutant and MILAN platoon commander in Berlin and subsequently as Operations Officer in Bulford in the UKMF role. He attended Division 2 of Army staff College at Shrivenham and Camberley, where he was awarded the Commandant’s essay prize, and fulfilled a black bag appointment on ACDS OR(Land)’s staff in MOD London.

Thereafter he commanded an armoured infantry company in Werl and Paderborn and took part in Op Grapple 6 and Operation Deliberate Force in 1995, for which he was awarded the MBE. He spent 18 months on the BATUS permanent staff before assuming command of the 1st Battalion the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment in November 1997. Ex Ulan Eagle in Poland was followed by an arms plot move to Warminster where the battalion carried out the role of Combined Arms Training Centre Battle Group and TESEX OPFOR for 2 years. 

Thereafter he spent 2 years at the Plans desk in the Directorate of Land Digitization and was then posted to Sierra Leone on promotion to Colonel, where as a member of the International Military Advisory Training Team he acted as Joint Force Commander of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces for 12 months. On return from Africa he served as COS to HQ UKSC(G) at JHQ Rheindahlen, before being promoted to Brigadier and posted to Northern Ireland as Commander 107 (Ulster) Brigade.

In 2007, Brigadier Watson attended the Royal College of Defence Studies, where he wrote an award-winning dissertation on sustainable development in China and won the Richard Edis prize as the top MA student. On completion of the course he deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as the commander of CSTC-A’s Combined Training Advisory Group, responsible for the development of the Afghan National Army’s institutional training base. He has spent the last 6 months in the UK, studying the Army’s assignment and operational detention policies for DG Pers and D Sec Pol respectively.

Married to Bernadette with a son and daughter he is a lifelong mountaineer with instructor qualifications in rock, ice and alpine climbing and is the President of the Army Mountaineering Association. He is also a keen runner and orienteer, and other occasional interests include Nordic and Alpine skiing, Scottish country dancing and (increasingly, it seems) gardening. He is a Member of the City and Guilds Institute and the Institute of Advanced Motoring, enjoys dual British/Canadian citizenship and speaks French and (some) German.