Lieut Gen Sir Hew Pike (55) is the new General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland. He arrives at army headquarters at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, today.
He moves to Northern Ireland after completing an appointment in Bosnia where he was the most senior British officer in the NATO-led Stabilisation Force. He succeeds Lieut Gen Sir Rupert Smith who is to be promoted general and will take up the NATO post of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Lieut Gen Pike served with the Parachute Regiment during the 1960s and was Company Commander 3rd Battalion in Germany and Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1977. From 1980 to 1983 he served in the Falklands campaign and completed a tour of duty in the North, where he commanded 3 Para. He was made KCB in 1997 and is married with two daughters and a son.