Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often rega ...

Alexander J. Burton is a retired senior

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

officer who served as Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces and Rear Admiral Surface Ships.

Early life and education

Burton was educated at St Dunstan's College and Durham University.

Naval career

Burton joined the

in 1986. He served as commanding officer of the minehunter and then as commanding officer of the frigate before going on to be Military Assistant to the Under Secretary of State at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

in 2006, Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Vice Chief of the Defence Staff in 2007 and Head of Operations for North Africa, Middle East and Pakistan in 2008. He was awarded the US

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious a ...

on 21 July 2009. After that he became commanding officer of the

amphibious transport dock An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently ope ...

in late 2010. Burton was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations (Maritime Capability) at the Ministry of Defence in September 2012 and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Ships and Submarines) in October 2014. He became Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces and Rear Admiral Surface Ships in January 2016. It is suggested he handed in his notice in September 2017 as a protest against proposed cuts to the Royal Navy including the axing of both beach-assaulting warships and 1,000

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

. Burton officially retired on 3 February 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Alex Alumni of University College, Durham Living people Royal Navy rear admirals Royal Navy personnel of the Iraq War Year of birth missing (living people)