[5] He was seconded to the Radar Research Establishment in Malvern in 1960 and returned to the British Army of the Rhine as a troop commander in 1962.

He attended Staff College, Camberley in 1965, following which he was promoted to major on 23 August 1965[8] and deployed with the Commonwealth Brigade to Malaysia during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.

[9] He commanded the Regiment in Germany and in Northern Ireland during the Troubles for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

[19] Vincent was promoted to field marshal and became Chief of the Defence Staff on 2 April 1991 in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

[20] His final appointment was as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in October 1993, before retiring from the British Army in 1996.

[2] He was ennobled in the 1996 Birthday Honours,[28] being created life peer on 3 September 1996 with the title Baron Vincent of Coleshill, of Shrivenham in the County of Oxfordshire,[29] and he held the ceremonial role of Master Gunner, St. James's Park from 1996[30] until 2000.

[31] Vincent was Chancellor of Cranfield University, with which the Defence College of Management and Technology had an academic partnership, from 1998 to 2010.