Air Marshal Christopher Mark Nickols, (born 23 July 1956) is a retired senior officer in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

, whose final appointment was

Chief of Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

. Prior to that he served as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations).

RAF career

Educated at

St Edmund's School St Edmund's School Canterbury is an independent day and boarding school located in Canterbury, Kent, England and established in 1749. The extensive school grounds were acquired in 1855. The school currently caters for girls and boys aged 3–18, ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

and having read engineering at Downing College, Cambridge, Nickols joined the

in 1974.Royal United Services Institute
/ref> He served as a pilot, flying

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

s in Germany for 9 years before becoming Officer Commanding No. 2 Squadron in 1993. He was appointed Director of the UK Combined Air Operations Centre in 1997, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff at Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood during the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the w ...

and then Station Commander at

RAF Lossiemouth Royal Air Force Lossiemouth or more commonly RAF Lossiemouth is a military airfield located on the western edge of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland. Lossiemouth is one of the largest and busiest fast-jet stations in the ...

in 2000. He was also Air Commodore Offensive Operations at Headquarters No. 1 Group, and was Director of the Combined Air Operations Centre for four months in 2003 during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

. He was made Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations) in 2005 and

in 2009. Nickols is Chairman of the RAF Polo Association, and a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickols, Chris 1956 births Living people Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Kent Royal Air Force air marshals Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge People educated at St Edmund's School Canterbury