General Sir Richard Lawson Barrons, KCB, CBE (born 17 May 1959)[1][2] is a retired British Army officer.

Between 2000 and 2003, Barrons served again in the Balkans, in Afghanistan during the early days of International Security Assistance Force, and then in a staff position in Basra, Iraq.

He then served briefly with the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps before being sent to Afghanistan for the second time, when he headed an ISAF reintegration unit to provide incentives for Taliban soldiers to surrender.

Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood,[3] Barrons was commissioned as a second lieutenant on probation as a university cadet into the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 2 September 1977 prior to reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford and becoming a full-time army officer on 21 June 1980.

After serving in Afghanistan, Barrons returned to the UK to attend the Higher Command and Staff Course,[4] before promotion to colonel in June 2002.

After Northern Ireland, he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, Commitments in 2005, with day-to-day responsibility for British Army operations.

[12] He was posted to Baghdad, where he had responsibility for overseeing joint operations conducted by the multinational force and the Iraqi Army.

[13] Having served in Iraq, he returned to the UK to take up a staff post in April 2009 as chief of staff to the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), but the appointment was short-lived as, in October 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan at short notice to establish a force reintegration unit, part of an effort to persuade Taliban fighters to rejoin society by offering alternatives to fighting, such as jobs and training.

[23][24] A week after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Barrons said, "How does public opinion in the UK and other countries react to people who look and live like us being slaughtered", and then advocated "the application of NATO military power, perhaps through the sky and definitely against [Russian] heavy weapons.

[31] He was also awarded the United States Legion of Merit (Degree of Officer) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services during coalition operations in Iraq".