Richard Gary Wilson was born in Brisbane, Queensland, on 16 January 1955.
Military career
A 1977 Infantry graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Wilson has extensive command experience in the Royal Australian Regiment. He served as:
Platoon Commander in the 6th Battalion
Adjutant, 2nd/4th Battalion
Company Commander, 2nd/4th Battalion
Commanding Officer, 2nd/4th Battalion
Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion
Commander, 7th Brigade
Director General Military Strategy
Promoted to Major General and assumed the position of Commander, Training Command — Army.
Plans Officer on the Joint Exercise Planning Staff
Following Staff College, Wilson spent two years on exchange with the United States Army as an Operations Officer on the G3 staff of the 7th Infantry Division, an element of the Rapid Deployment Force, based at Fort Ord in California. In 1993, Wilson was seconded to the Office of National Assessments as a Defence Liaison Officer and Military Analyst. This was followed by an appointment as the Army representative on the Writing Team for the 1994 Defence White Paper 'Defending Australia'. From August 1997 until January 2000, Wilson served as the first Chief Staff Officer Plans, or J5, at Headquarters Australian Theatre, the Australian Defence Force's newly formed operational level headquarters. Of particular note during this period were the planning for the peace monitoring operations on Bougainville and the peace enforcement operations conducted in East Timor by an Australian-led international coalition force. For his services as the J5 at HQAST, Wilson was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2000 Australia Day Honours List. Wilson served with the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor as Commander of the Peacekeeping Forces in Sector West from July 2001 until March 2002. His overseas experience also includes two three-month tours of duty in Malaysia with Rifle Company Butterworth and an exchange posting with the United States Army's 7th Infantry Division which included training deployments to Honduras, Panama and Colombia. Wilson was responsible for "The Wilson Report" which examined C2 arrangements in the ADF and recommended the formation of a co-located Joint Headquarters. Located in NSW between Queanbeyan and Bungendore to the east of Canberra, this establishment is known as HQJOC. On 6 July 2007, Wilson was appointed Commander, 1st Division. He was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2009 Honours List. Wilson succeeded Major General Mick Slater as Chair of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority on 1 September 2011.
Richard Wilson and his wife have three children. He is keenly interested in sports, particularly rugby, enjoys reading military history and has a strong interest in environmental matters, strategic geography and international relations.
